DCMS sectors economic estimates: Trade, 2021 - main report

Question 1

1 Background

Accepted Answer

Release date: 3 August 2023
Revised: 27 June 2024
Next release: spring/summer 2024
Geographic coverage: United Kingdom
Time coverage: 2016 to 2021
Responsible analysts: Eri Hutchinson and Zoe Kimber

This release provides estimates for the following measures for 2021:

estimates of exports and imports of goods in DCMS sectors
estimates of exports and imports of services by businesses in DCMS sectors
exports and imports of tourism where exports are defined as spending on goods and services by overseas visitors to the UK and imports are defined as spending by UK visitors overseas.

The DCMS sectors covered in this release are:

creative industries
cultural sector
gambling (services only)
sport
tourism (covered on a separate basis to the other sectors)

Estimates are not available for the civil society sector as there are no formally recognised imports or exports of goods or services for civil society from the data sources available. Figures for gambling sector goods imports and exports are also not included in this release as there are no goods associated with this sector in the data sources available.

Estimates of trade in services and trade in goods are not comparable on any basis as they use different data sources and different definitions as to what constitutes an import or an export. See the accompanying technical report for further information.

Figures for the digital sector and telecoms are presented separately as responsibility for these policy areas now sits with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

This release includes figures up to 2021 (i.e. these estimates are affected by EU-Exit and the COVID-19 pandemic). Caution is advised when making year on year comparisons of trade in goods or services due to the combined effects of the national and international implications of pandemic, EU-Exit uncertainty and border disruptions which contributed to the volatility in UK goods and services trade.^{[footnote 1]} See Annex A for a timeline of events and pieces of legislation that occurred between 2016 and 2021 relevant to the movements of goods and people.

This publication, including the accompanying data tables, includes data for the period 2016 to 2021. This is the earliest year for which data is available for trade in goods and services in the DCMS sectors, following the creation of DSIT and the change to the DCMS remit..

Estimates are given in current prices and have not been adjusted for inflation. Year on year increases are therefore likely to be higher than the ‘real’ (inflation-adjusted) value. Changes over time are therefore reported here as changes in the proportion of total UK imports and exports.

Question 2

2.  Headline findings

Accepted Answer

2.1 Trade in goods

Trade in included DCMS sector goods in 2021 is estimated as:

£9.8 billion of goods imports, 1.9% of total UK goods imports (similar to 2020 and down from 2.4% in 2019).
£10.4 billion of goods exports, 3.0% of total UK goods exports (down from 3.3% in 2020 and down from 4.4% in 2019).

2.2 Trade in services

Trade in services by businesses in included DCMS sectors in 2021 is estimated as:

£28.1 billion of service imports, 15.9% of total UK service imports (similar to 16.0% in 2020 and up from 10.8% in 2019).
£50.8 billion of service exports, 16.2% of total UK service exports (up from 15.8% in 2020 and 13.5% in 2019).

2.3 Trade in tourism

Trade in tourism in 2021 is estimated as:

£15.5 billion in tourism imports (spend on goods and services by UK visitors overseas)
£5.6 billion in tourism exports (spend on goods and services by overseas visitors to the UK)

Question 3

3.  Trade in goods

Accepted Answer

Estimates of trade in goods are calculated on a “cross-border” measure of trade; a good is recorded as an export or import when it physically leaves or enters the economic territory of a country. Due to the different definitions and calculations, estimates of trade in goods are not comparable on any basis to the estimates of trade in services. From 1 January 2021, Great Britain to EU goods export statistics are compiled directly from customs export declarations. As a result, there is a break in the time series for UK to EU export estimates in January 2021. ^{[footnote 2]} This means UK to EU export statistics will not be directly comparable to those published for previous or future months and years. See the Data Sources section and methodology note for further information.

Exports of DCMS sector goods have been consistently higher than imports between 2016 and 2021 (the years of which data are available), as shown in Figure 1 below. This is in contrast to the UK economy as a whole, as the UK is a net importer of goods. ^{[footnote 3]}

The proportion of total UK trade in goods accounted for by goods in included DCMS Sectors decreased between 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2021 for both imports (2.4% to 1.9%) and exports (4.4% to 3.0%) as shown in Figure 1. Most of the decrease occurred between 2019 and 2020 for both imports (1.9% in 2020) and exports (3.3% in 2020).

Figure 1: Trade in included DCMS sectors (excl. tourism, gambling and civil society) goods, including as a percentage of the UK total: 2016 to 2021

3.1 Trade in DCMS sectors

In 2021, the value of goods exported by included DCMS sectors exceeded the value of goods imported by £0.6 billion (a trade surplus). The largest contributor to this surplus was the volume of exports in creative industries goods (Figure 3), particularly exports of goods in the ‘Music, performing and visual arts’ sub-sector. DCMS sectors are not mutually exclusive; industries may contribute to and be classified as more than one sector. For more information, see the DCMS sector overlaps in Annex B.

Figure 2: The net balance of trade in goods by DCMS sectors, current prices, 2021, UK

Sector	Net balance of trade in goods (£ billions)
DCMS Sectors	0.6
Creative Industries	2.1
Cultural Sector	0.5
Sport Sector	-0.6

A negative net trade balance indicates that there is a trade deficit and the value of goods imported is higher than the value of goods exported.

Figure 3: The value of goods traded by each DCMS sector, 2021

The value of goods traded by each DCMS sector is presented below, in current prices. Please note industries may contribute to and be classified as more than one sector. For example, the majority of cultural sector goods are also classified as creative industries goods. For more information see Annex B.

Creative industries

In 2021, trade in creative industries goods was estimated as:

£7.0 billion goods imports, 1.4% of UK goods imports (similar to 2020 and down from 2.0% in 2019).
£9.1 billion goods exports, 2.7% of UK goods exports (down from 2.8% in 2020 and 3.8% in 2019).

Cultural sector

In 2021, trade in cultural sector goods was estimated as:

£6.7 billion goods imports, 1.3% of UK goods imports (similar to 2020 and down from 1.8% in 2019).
£7.2 billion goods exports, 2.1% of UK goods exports (similar to 2020 and down from 3.1% in 2019).

Sport sector

In 2021, trade in sport goods was estimated as:

£1.7 billion goods imports, 0.3% of UK goods imports (similar to 2020 and up from 0.2% in 2019).
£1.1 billion goods exports, 0.3% of UK goods exports (down from 0.4% in 2020 and 0.6% in 2019).

3.2 Trade with individual countries

This section summarises trade in DCMS sector goods by partner country in 2021 (Figure 4).

Imports of goods

The USA (£1.7 billion) was the largest source for DCMS sector goods imports to the UK in 2021, followed by China (£1.5 billion). In contrast, China (£63.3 billion) was the largest source for goods imports across the wider UK economy, followed by Germany (£53.8 billion) ^{[footnote 3]}.

For all of the top five partner countries by value of imports, the creative industries was the largest category of DCMS sector goods imports except for China, for which it was the sport sector.

The top five partner countries by value of imports for included DCMS sectors (shown in Figure 4 below) are mostly the same across the individual DCMS sectors. Please refer to the data tables included in this release for further breakdowns by sector and subsector.

Exports of goods

The USA (£2.5 billion) was the largest destination for DCMS sector goods exports in 2021, followed by Switzerland (£1 billion). The USA (£43.5 billion) was also the largest export partner country for goods across the wider UK economy, followed by Germany (£29.8 billion).^{[footnote 3]}

For all of the top five partner countries the creative industries was the largest category of DCMS Sector goods exports.

The top five partner countries for included DCMS sectors (shown in Figure 4 below) were mostly the same for goods exports in each DCMS sector, with some exceptions. Please refer to the data tables included in this release for further breakdowns by sector and subsector.

Figure 4: The top five countries that businesses in the included DCMS sectors imported the most goods from and exported the most goods to in 2021

Question 4

4.  Trade in services

Accepted Answer

Estimates of trade in services are classified by the business involved in the trade and not the service provided. They are calculated on a change of ownership (balance of payments) measure of trade - if trade moves across land borders but remains under the same ownership this is not counted as trade. Estimates of trade in services are not comparable on any basis to the estimates of trade in goods. See data sources section for further information.

Exports of services by businesses in included DCMS sectors have consistently been higher than imports of services between 2016 and 2021 (Figure 5). This is consistent with the wider UK economy (the UK is a net exporter of services.^{[footnote 3]}

The proportion of total UK trade in services accounted for by services in included DCMS Sectors has increased between 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2021 for both imports (10.8% to 15.9%) and exports (13.5% to 16.2%), as shown in Figure 5. Most of the increase occurred between 2019 and 2020 for both imports (16.0% in 2020) and exports (15.8% in 2020).

Figure 5: Trade in included DCMS sectors (excl. tourism and civil society) services, as a percentage of the UK total: 2016 to 2021

4.1 Trade in DCMS sectors

In 2021, the value of services exported by businesses in included DCMS sectors exceeded the value of services imported by £22.7 billion (a trade surplus), predominantly due to businesses in the creative industries (Figure 6). Exports of services in the creative industries are driven by businesses in the IT, software and computer services subsector.

DCMS sectors are not mutually exclusive; industries may contribute to and be classified as more than one sector. See DCMS sector overlaps in Annex B.

Figure 6: The net balance of trade in services by DCMS sectors, current prices, 2021, UK (£ billions)

Sector	Net balance of trade in services (£ billions)
DCMS Sectors	22.7
Creative Industries	18.7
Cultural Sector	4.0
Sport Sector	2.3

*A positive net trade balance indicates a trade surplus and that the value of services exported is higher than the value of services imported.

The value of services traded by businesses in each DCMS sector is presented below in current prices.

Although the gambling sector is included in the DCMS sector exports of services total, we have not reported the value of services exported by the gambling sector separately. This is because the aggregated exports of services data for gambling failed disclosure checks. These are tests that we apply to the data to make sure that respondents to the survey cannot be identified from the results. For this reason we are unable to report the net balance of trade in services for the gambling sector.

Figure 7: The value of services traded by businesses in each DCMS sector, 2021