How large is the creative economy?

Prior Reading: Malaysia’s creative industry contribution to GDP remains low by Dr. Tan Beng Huat

Leinn Arts February 24, 2022

The United Nations General Assembly established on their 74th session, 2021 as the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development; which confirmed the rising role of creative economy on the global stage. 1

The creative economy, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is “an evolving concept based on creative assets potentially generating economic growth and development” , was one of the fastest growing sectors in every region of the world – North and South, East and West – before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. 2

The creative economy has been considered as highly transformative because of its capacity on income generation, job creation and export earnings with spillover effects that stimulated innovation in other sectors.

                                   (Photo by Lava Lavanda on Unsplash)

It represents 3% of world economy GDP and around 30 million jobs worldwide, according to UNESCO’s data. Extrapolating from earlier trends suggests that the creative economy could grow 40% by 2030, adding more than 8 million additional jobs.

According to the report The future of creative economy by Deloitte (2021)

“The creative economy is a means of addressing important social and cultural needs. It can provide cultural representation by presenting a diverse range of human experiences. It can aid social cohesion, among the population at large or particular communities, by enabling the sharing of common narratives about the contemporary, historical or mythical world in which we live. The creative economy is the part of the economy that tells our stories and the creative works we leave behind as a society are likely to define how future generations understand us.