The creative industries contributed £145.8bn in gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy in 2024, new government figures have revealed.

Creative industries GVA rose by 4.6% between 2023 and 2024, compared to the UK economy as a whole which grew by 1.0%, the data from the Department for Culture, Media Sport (DCMS) shows.

The sector’s GVA was 19.7% higher than pre-pandemic (2019) and 60.3% higher than in 2010, in real terms.

The growth was driven by the ‘IT, software and computer services’ subsector which increased by an estimated 8.7%, followed by ‘film, TV, radio and photography’ and ‘advertising and marketing‘ which grew by 4.6% and 2.1% respectively.

‘IT, software and computer services’ is the largest subsector of the creative industries by GVA, contributing an estimated £62.4bn in 2024. ‘Advertising and marketing’ is the next largest with £24.3bn.

Growth in creative industries subsectors, in chained volume measures (CVM):

Other data released this month showed the creative industries account for almost a 10th of UK firms classified as having ‘high-growth potential’, and a lot of those businesses are in Bristol and the south west.

Growth of culture sector

The DCMS report also included data for the cultural sector which contributed an estimated £40.3bn in 2024, accounting for 1.5% of UK GVA.

GVA grew by around 2.4% from 2023 to 2024, compared to the UK economy as a whole which grew by 1.0%. From 2010 to 2024, culture GVA grew slightly faster than the UK economy (25.4% vs 24.3%).

DCMS said the increase in cultural sector GVA was almost entirely due to a 4.1% increase in the ‘film, TV and music’ subsector.

The subsectors that saw the largest relative growth in cultural sector GVA were the ‘radio’ which increased by an estimated 11.8% and ‘crafts’ subsector which grew by an estimated 4.9%.

‘Film, TV and music’ is the largest cultural subsector in size economically, contributing an estimated £23.8bn to the UK economy in 2024. The second largest is ‘arts’ with £11.4bn.

Growth in cultural sector subsectors, in chained volume measures (CVM):

New funding and support for the creative industries

Alongside the data for the growth of the creative industries, the government has announced new funding and related support for creative businesses.

It follows the publication last year of the creative industries sector plan. In addition, the creative industries is one of the eight key sectors of focus in the government’s industrial strategy and the West of England is one of the government’s priority areas for the creative industries. As part of that,  the £25m Creative Places Growth Fund will run for three years from April 2026.

The new funding and support announced this month is:

• £45m investment by the British Business Bank into Redrice Ventures, a specialist seed-stage investor across the creative industries.
• The Bank is exploring using its existing financial guarantee capacity to support IP-backed lending to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.
• The bank is working with other public bodies, including Innovate UK, to ensure joined-up support for businesses at all stages – from grants and early stage funding programmes, to finance for SMEs to grow and scale in the UK.
• The bank is also convening sector stakeholders, including small creative business owners, finance providers, public finance institutions, and the Creative Industries Council, to understand the investment opportunities in the sector.

DCMS has also published new resources to help creative businesses access funding including a map of finance available to the sector, and case studies of successful creative scale-ups.

Bristol Creative Industries also a regularly updated guide to funding for creative industries businesses in the West of England here.

Click on the map for links to all the sources of creative industries funding

About Bristol Creative Industries

Bristol Creative Industries is the membership network that supports the region's creative sector to learn, grow and connect, driven by the common belief that we can achieve more collectively than alone.