Official Statistics

DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates: Monthly GVA (to December 2021)

Experimental Official Statistics used to provide an estimate of the contribution of DCMS Sectors to the UK economy, measured by GVA (gross value added).

Documents

Details

Details

Headline findings

Reported DCMS sector GVA is estimated to have grown by 1.4% from Quarter 3 (July to September) to Quarter 4 (October to December) in real terms. By comparison, the whole UK economy grew by 0.9% from Quarter 3 to Quarter 4.

GVA of reported DCMS sectors in December 2021 was 1.9% above February 2020 levels, which was the most recent month not significantly affected by the pandemic. By comparison, GVA for the whole UK economy was level with February 2020.

Released

17 February 2022. The next release will be in May 2022 (provisional).

About this release

These Economic Estimates are Official Statistics used to provide an estimate of the economic contribution of DCMS Sectors in terms of gross value added (GVA), for the period January 2019 to December 2021.

Provisional monthly GVA in 2019 and 2020 was first published in March 2021 as an ad hoc statistical release. This current release contains new figures for October to December 2021 and revised estimates for previous months.

Estimates are in chained volume measures (i.e. have been adjusted for inflation) and are seasonally adjusted.

These timely estimates should only be used to illustrate general trends, rather than be taken as definitive figures. These figures will not be as accurate as our annual National Statistics release of gross value added for DCMS sectors (which will be published later in 2022, when data becomes available).

You can use these estimates to:

  • Look at relative indicative changes in GVA over time for DCMS sectors and subsectors

You should not use these estimates to:

  • Quantify GVA for a specific month
  • Measure absolute change in GVA over time
  • Determine findings for DCMS sectors that are defined using more detailed industrial classes (due to the data sources only being available at broader industry levels)

Data sources

The findings are calculated based on published ONS data sources including the Index of Services and Index of Production.

These data sources provide an estimate of the monthly change in GVA for all UK industries. However, the data is only available for broader industry groups, whereas DCMS sectors are defined at a more detailed industrial level. For example, GVA for ‘Cultural education’ is estimated based on the trend for all education. Sectors such as ‘Cultural education’ may have been affected differently by COVID-19 compared to education in general. These estimates are also based on the composition of the economy in 2019. Overall, this means the accuracy of monthly GVA for DCMS sectors is likely to be lower for months in 2020 and 2021.

The technical guidance contains further information about data sources, methodology, and the validation and accuracy of these estimates.

Revisions

Figures are provisional and subject to revision on a monthly basis when the ONS Index of Services and Index of Production are updated. Figures for the latest month will be highly uncertain.

The impact of these revisions is highlighted in the following example; for the most recent revisions (applied in Feb 2022) the average change to DCMS sector monthly GVA was 0.6%, but there were larger differences for some sectors, in some months e.g. the value of the Sport sector in May 2021 was revised from £1.27 billion to £1.45 billion, a 13.8% difference.

Content

These statistics cover the contributions of the following DCMS sectors to the UK economy;

  • Creative Industries
  • Cultural Sector
  • Digital Sector
  • Gambling
  • Sport
  • Telecoms

Users should note that there is overlap between DCMS sector definitions and that the Telecoms sector sits wholly within the Digital sector.

Timely estimates of Tourism GVA are not available at present, due to a lack of suitable data.

Civil Society is not included in the estimates for October to December 2021. We are working on a method to estimate Civil Society GVA on a monthly basis, and will be publishing updated figures in the next release.

Feedback and consultation

DCMS aims to continuously improve the quality of estimates and better meet user needs. DCMS welcomes feedback on this release. Feedback should be sent to DCMS via email at evidence@dcms.gov.uk.

The UK Statistics Authority

This release is published in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics (2018) produced by the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). The UKSA has the overall objective of promoting and safeguarding the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good. It monitors and reports on all official statistics, and promotes good practice in this area.

Pre-release access

The accompanying pre-release access document lists ministers and officials who have received privileged early access to this release. In line with best practice, the list has been kept to a minimum and those given access for briefing purposes had a maximum of 24 hours.

Contact

Responsible statistician: Rachel Moyce

For any queries or feedback, please contact evidence@dcms.gov.uk.

Updates to this page

Published 17 February 2022

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