Official Statistics

DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates Productivity 2023 (provisional)

Published 20 March 2025

1. Introduction

Release date: 20 March 2025

Next release: 2025/26

Geographic coverage: United Kingdom

Time coverage: 2019 to 2023

Responsible analyst: Rachel Moyce

These official statistics in development provide provisional estimates of the productivity of DCMS sectors annually for 2019 to 2022, and provisionally for 2023, measured by gross value added (GVA) per hour worked. Output per filled job estimates are not being updated in this publication, as some of the data required to calculate this measure is not available. Please see technical report for further details.

These estimates should not be directly compared to the previously published ones, as the methodology has since changed and the data used to produce the older estimates has since been substantially revised. This publication includes a time series for the first time, further information is available in the technical report.

Estimates exclude tourism, due to a lack of suitable data, and civil society, as our definitions for civil society jobs, hours worked and GVA are incompatible. Work is ongoing to explore the feasibility of developing estimates.

We use current prices to report estimates in a particular year, and chained volume measures for comparisons over time.

Official statistics in development

These statistics are labelled as official statistics in development. Official statistics in development are official statistics that are undergoing development and will be tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. These productivity estimates are designed to complement our other economic estimates and to give a deeper understanding of the economic performance of DCMS sectors to the UK economy. They are being published as official statistics in development because:

• they include updated methodology for output per hour
• the methodology is still in development, including exploring the possibility of producing estimates for civil society and tourism
• we will be seeking user feedback on the usefulness of the statistics, the suitability of the methodology used and how clearly the statistics are communicated, including explanations about quality. 

We expect to make further methodological improvements and implement changes after seeking user feedback. These changes will be made by the next annual productivity release, expected in 2025/2026. At this point we will make an assessment about whether the statistics still remain in development or if the label can be removed. 

We welcome feedback on these statistics. We particularly welcome views on:

• the methodology and data sources used
• the presentation of these measures and explanations about the quality of the data
• suggestions for how these statistics could be further improved
• how you are using the estimates 

Please contact evidence@dcms.gov.uk by 23rd May 2025 with any feedback.

2. Headline Findings

Provisional estimates suggest that productivity in the included DCMS sectors in 2023 is lower than the UK average in terms of output per hour. In 2023:

• Output per hour in included DCMS sectors (creative industries, culture, sport and gambling) in 2023 was £35, lower than the £43 for the UK as a whole. This means that for DCMS sectors compared to the UK average, more hours of work are needed to generate the same amount of GVA. 
• Output per hour in included DCMS sectors was similar in 2019 and 2023 in real terms. From 2022 to 2023, output per hour fell by 3.3%. In comparison, the UK economy as a whole rose by 2.8% from 2019 to 2023, and fell by 0.5% from 2022 to 2023.

The following information is worth noting:

• The output per hour figures above use current prices to report current sector estimates and chained volume measures in 2022 prices (accounting for inflation) for any comparisons over time.
• Estimates for 2023 are provisional and subject to change when the National Accounts are published later in 2025.
• GVA is a standard measure of labour output, and has the advantages of comparability and availability of data, but will produce apparently lower values of productivity for parts of DCMS sectors (e.g. museums, libraries) where goods and services are often provided free at the points of consumption and have wider cultural and societal benefits (which may also include indirect effects on UK GVA).
• These estimates use the ONS dataset output per hour worked which is classified as official statistics in development because the estimates are based on the Labour Force Survey which has been impacted by falling sample sizes. The estimates also use ONS Annual Population Survey (APS) estimates of hours worked, which has also been impacted by falling sample sizes. As a result, the accreditation of ONS statistics based on the APS was temporarily suspended on 9 October 2024 and these statistics are considered official statistics in development until further review. This means there is greater uncertainty in DCMS sector estimates.

3. Sector level analysis

3.1 Overlaps between sectors

Sector overlap

Some industries are found within multiple sectors and are likely to drive trends in the same way for both sectors. Overlaps between sectors will vary depending on what is being estimated.In these calculations, that includes GVA as the output and hours worked as the input. More detail is given below for sector overlaps in GVA.

In 2023, for DCMS excluding tourism and civil society:

• 83.5% of the included DCMS Sector GVA is within the creative industries
• 23.3% of the included DCMS Sector GVA is within the cultural sector
• However, 22.6% of DCMS Sector GVA is within both the Creative Industries and the cultural sector. This illustrates that the cultural sector is almost fully contained within the creative industries (but not vice versa) and these overlaps include activities such as performing arts and radio and television broadcasting. 

When calculating the DCMS Sector total, the GVA from industries within the overlap is counted once. Users should be aware that the estimate for ‘All DCMS sectors’ is therefore lower than the sum of the individual sectors.

Figure 1. GVA and overlaps in DCMS sectors, 2023

For more information, Chapter 2 of the technical report visually outlines the overlap between SIC codes in DCMS sectors, but not the value of GVA within these overlaps. 

3.2 Sector findings

In 2023, of all included DCMS sectors, excluding tourism and civil society, the gambling sector had the highest output per hour at £43. The gambling sector is the smallest DCMS sector by GVA, but also has a lower number of hours worked than other sectors. The smaller size also means the data is more volatile year to year. The lowest output per hour in the included DCMS sectors was the sport sector, at £30.

In 2023, productivity in each included DCMS sector, apart from gambling, was lower than the UK average. However, there is wide variation at the subsector level for the output per hour measure.

3.3 Creative Industries

Creative industries output per hour was £36 in 2023, compared to the UK average of £43. Output per hour fell by around 5% from 2022 to 2023, but increased by 1% from 2019 to 2023.

DCMS has grouped the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes defining the creative industries into nine distinct subsectors, grouped by policy themes. We have produced estimates of output per hour by subsector. 

Looking at output per hour for these subsectors:

• The highest output per hour was in the ‘advertising and marketing’ subsector at £53 per hour, followed by ‘film, TV, radio and photography’ at £49 per hour.
• The lowest output per hour was in the ‘museums, galleries and libraries’ subsector at £9 per hour. We might expect to see lower productivity in this subsector using these measures, as many of the kinds of outputs we expect to be produced from the labour input are not included in GVA.

3.4 Cultural Sector

Cultural sector output per hour was £35 in 2023, compared to the UK average of £43. Output per hour was around 4% lower than in 2022 and around 5% lower than in 2019.

DCMS has grouped the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes defining the cultural sector into nine distinct subsectors, grouped by policy themes. We have produced estimates of output per hour by subsector. 

Looking at output per hour for these subsectors:

• The highest output per hour was in the ‘radio’ subsector at £69 per hour, followed by ‘film, TV and music’ at £50 per hour.
• The lowest output per hour was in the ‘library and archives’ subsector at £4 per hour. We might expect to see lower productivity in this subsector using these measures, as many of the kinds of outputs we expect to be produced from the labour input are not included in GVA.

3.5 Gambling

Gambling sector output per hour was £43 in 2023, in line with the UK average (also £43). Output per hour was similar in 2022 and 2023, and around 3% lower in 2023 than in 2019.

It should be noted that the gambling sector is small, comprising just one two-digit SIC code (SIC 92). Consequently, estimates are prone to sampling variability from year to year.

3.6 Sport

Sport sector output per hour was £30 in 2023, compared to the UK average of £43. Output per hour was around 7% higher than in 2022, and similar to 2019.

4. Strengths and limitations

Strengths of these estimates

• These estimates have been calculated to follow the ONS methodology as closely as possible, to aid comparability to UK national estimates.
• The output measure used is the GVA published in the DCMS sector annual GVA publication, giving consistency across DCMS Economic Estimates.
• Annual Population Survey data allows us to estimate actual hours worked, rather than usual or contracted hours. For this publication, an additional step has been added to constrain total hours to the ONS hours worked measure, which uses additional sources of data. This enables us to use proportions of actual hours worked while keeping comparability to ONS data.

Limitations of these estimates

• Several DCMS sectors’ outputs are not well represented by GVA alone (particularly in the cultural sector, for example, museums and libraries). This is because these sectors’ goods and services are often provided free at the point of consumption. Also, GVA cannot capture wider cultural and societal benefits associated with these sectors (which may also include indirect effects on UK GVA). Hence, these productivity measures cannot fully account for output in these sectors. DCMS’s Cultural and Heritage Capital Programme sets out an ambition for a culture and heritage capital account that goes beyond transactions with market prices.

• The underlying data for these estimates includes the Annual Population Survey (APS) estimates of hours worked in each 4-digit SIC code. While this enables us to estimate actual hours worked at a 4-digit SIC level, responses are self-reported, and SIC codes may therefore be less accurate.  Due to ongoing challenges with response rates, response levels and weighting, the accreditation of ONS statistics based on the APS was temporarily suspended on 9 October 2024 and are considered official statistics in development until further review. As a result of the falling sample sizes, estimates based on the APS are likely to have increased volatility and uncertainty.  

• The ONS productivity jobs series uses the Labour Force Survey, which has experienced falling response rates. ONS have therefore paused publication of industry level estimates of output per job, and the series is labelled as official statistics in development. These will resume after they have analysed the impact of Labour Force Survey (LFS) reweighting. Since this publication uses the industry level estimates, we have been unable to produce  updated estimates of output per job. We will review this in future, based on both data availability and user needs.
• Output per hour estimates also make use of LFS data, and the ONS output per hour productivity estimates are therefore currently labelled as official statistics in development. This means there is greater uncertainty in DCMS sector estimates.

5. Further information

The accompanying data tables consist of estimates for output per hour worked in the DCMS sectors and subsectors in 2019 to 2023, in current prices and in chained volume measure

The DCMS sectors covered in this report are:

• Creative Industries
• Cultural Sector
• Gambling
• Sport

Estimates exclude tourism, due to a lack of suitable data, and civil society, as our definitions for civil society jobs, hours worked and GVA are incompatible. Work is ongoing to explore the feasibility of developing estimates.

Methodological information on the sector definitions, data sources, calculations of productivity and limitations of the approach can now be found in the accompanying technical report, along with. a summary of alternative economic measures of these sectors that are published elsewhere.

The next update to these statistics will be released in 2025/26 following the publication of the next DCMS sector annual GVA estimates. The GVA figures used will be revised in the next annual update.

DCMS has developed a suite of economic estimates to understand the economic impact its sectors have on the UK economy. In combination with other economic indicators, productivity estimates help build a comprehensive picture of the UK economy, and of the DCMS Sectors’ importance within it.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

The responsible statistician for this release is Rachel Moyce. For enquiries on this release, please email evidence@dcms.gov.uk.

For general enquiries contact:

Department for Culture, Media and Sport 100 Parliament Street London SW1A 2BQ

For media enquiries contact: 020 7211 2210.

DCMS statisticians can also be followed on X via @DCMSInsight.