The Creative Economy Outlook 2024 underscores the pivotal role that creative industries play in trade and economic growth. UNCTAD’s global survey reveals the varied economic contributions of the creative economy across different countries, ranging from 0.5% to 7.3% of GDP and employing between 0.5% to 12.5% of the workforce.

Growth was fastest in creative services

Creative services exports surged to $1.4-trillion in 2022, marking a 29% increase since 2017. Meanwhile, creative goods exports reached $713-billion, a 19% increase. Over the past decade, creative services' share of all service exports rose from 12% to 19%, while creative goods' share of all goods exports has remained steady around 3% since 2002. Developing countries primarily export creative goods, while developed countries dominate creative services exports. However, developing countries have significantly increased their share from 10% in 2010 to 20% in 2022.

Report by the UN Trade and Development