The creative economy is also valuable to the extent that its association with individual creativity implies that it often involves the creation of new knowledge, which will create wider benefits through spillovers to other sectors. Creative industries often create technical innovations, most notably in the IT sector. The creative industries also support the diffusion of knowledge, for example through publishing. The news media in particular, but other parts of the creative economy as well, can also support democratic accountability through sharing information about current events, investigating institutions, and challenging decision-making.”

The creative economy is large and growing. For analysing how it impacts on the different economies in the world the data of Colombia, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom has been selected.

In Colombia, the cultural and creative industries contributed 3% to the gross domestic product in 2019, and it reached a record result of USD 238 million in terms of exports.

In Germany, the cultural and creative industries contributed 3,1% to the gross domestic and represented 7% of total employment in the country in 2018.

In Japan,the cultural and creative industries contributed between 6.5m and 9.3m and represented 10-14% of total employment in the country in 2018.

In México, the cultural and creative industries contributed 3,5% to the gross domestic product in 2019, and it reached a record result of USD 5.200 million in terms of exports.

In Nigeria, the music industry was growing at an annual rate of 13.4%. The Nigerian film industry, known as “Nollywood”, employs about one million people and, with over 2,000 films produced per year, was ahead of Hollywood.

In South Africa, the cultural and creative industries contributed 1,5% to the gross domestic product in 2018 and represented 7% of total employment in the country in 2018.

In South Korea, the cultural and creative industries contributed around 850,000 rising to over 1m in 2018, around 4% of total employment in the country.

In Spain, the cultural and creative industries contributed 900,00m in 2018, around 5% of total employment in the country.

In Turkey, the cultural and creative industries contributed 600,000m, around 2.5% of total employment in the country.

In the UK, the cultural and creative industries contributed over 3.1m in 2018, 10% of total employment in the country.

1.UN resolution 74/198, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N19/359/41/PDF/N19359....

2.United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2018), Creative Economy Outlook: Trends in international trade in Creative Industries and Country Profiles, Geneva and New York, United Nations, https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ditcted2018d3_en.pdf