Tristan PICARD
january 2016
16 p.

In 2014, the direct economic impact of culture, i.e. the value-added of all areas of culture put together, was close to €44 billion. The proportional value of culture within the economy as a whole fell to 2.3%, taking it closer to 1995 levels (having risen to 2.6% in 2003). For the purposes of comparison, the value-added of the automotive industry was valued at €9.8 billion in 2013.

The continued decline of the press, architecture and book publishing in 2014 were behind this fall. Against the rising popularity of digital offerings, retail sales held firm but at levels far lower than those seen in 2007, the year in which the decline of these sectors set in. The areas of audiovisual, live entertainment and cultural heritage have shown continued growth since 1995, to the extent that live entertainment and audiovisual were the highest ranking areas of he cultural industry in terms of economic impact, knocking the press off the top spot which it had held since the early 2000s.

Alongside this economic downturn, employment in the cultural sectors was also down by 5% compared with 2013, with the press and book publishing sectors being particularly badly hit. Totalling some 615,000 jobs in 2014, the cultural sectors represent 2.4% of the working population.