Creative Industries Switzerland 2023

GVA: Estimates based on National Accounts NA, Turnover: Estimates based on national Value Added Tax VAT
Remark: Following the revision of the NA 2023, time series have been amended. Cantonal GVA estimates based on NA 2022.
Source: FSO, STATENT, NA; STATZH, DISAGG-GVA; FTA, VAT; own calculations by Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (ZCCE) at ZHdK

Overview

In 2023, around 320,000 persons were employed in Switzerland’s creative industries in roughly 84,000 businesses. This represented 11.7% of Swiss businesses and 5.7% of all employees. The creative industries generated an estimated Gross Value Added (GVA) of CHF 34 billion and an estimated turnover of CHF 109 billion. This corresponded to 4.1% of Switzerland’s GVA and 2.0% of Switzerland’s total turnover.

Employment in Switzerland’s creative industries is highest in the submarkets Software and games industry (75,319, 23.6% of creative industries), Architecture market (61,464, 19.2%), Music market (34,306, 10.7%), Design industry (28,320, 8.9%) and Press market (23,194, 7.3%). These five submarkets account for more than two thirds of all creative industries jobs.

The figures confirm that the Switzerland’s creative industries are dominated by small businesses. 93,3% are micro-businesses employing up to 10 persons (FTEs). Around three quarters (78,4%) comprise merely one or two persons. Such businesses are known as smallest, i.e., micro-businesses. The pie chart shows that more than two fifth (42.4%) of all Switzerland’s creative industries employees work in micro-businesses, i.e., in businesses with less than 10 employees.

The creative industries are particularly concentrated (LQ > 1.2) in the canton ZH (% of total employment = 8.4%, LQ = 1.5), BS (7.5 %, 1.3), ZG (7.0%, 1.2).

Developments

In 2023, the creative sector recorded 1,228 more businesses than in 2022, with a total of 84,079 creative businesses. This figure represents a new high since 2011. The increase in the creative industries (+1.5%) was therefore higher than in the overall economy (+0.9%). It was most pronounced in Advertising market (+6.1%), Film industry (+4.0%) and Software and games industry (+3.4%).

The number of employees in the creative industries, rose by 3,886 employees (+1.2%) to 319,700 employees, which is less than in the overall economy (+1.5%). The increase was highest in Crafts market (+7.5%), Music industry (+2.6%) and Software and games industry (+2.6%).

In 2023, nominal gross value added in the creative industries climbed at CHF 33.5 billion. At +5.9%, the increase in nominal gross value added in the creative sector between 2022 and 2023 was three times higher than that in the overall economy (+1.9%).

The strongest increase in nominal gross value added in the creative industries sector in 2023 was in Performing arts market (+12.9%) and Music industry (+11.5%), where it had recorded the sharpest decline in 2020 (-31.7% resp. -26.3%).[2] That year, many cultural institutions had to close temporarily due to the pandemic.

Methodology

Based on the classification for creative industries according to ZCCE, we calculate the size and the development of the creative industries and its 13 submarkets in Switzerland using the Structural Business Statistics (STATENT), the National Accounts (NA) and the Value Added Tax (VAT).[3]

In Switzerland, the creative industries sector is defined, with reference to the European debate, as those cultural and creative enterprises that are predominantly market oriented and are concerned with the production, distribution and media dissemination of cultural and creative goods and services.

The creative industries Switzerland are subdivided into 13 submarkets.[4] It is here that products and services are created, either for other production and service sectors or directly for the final consumer market. In this sense, the cultural and creative industries are mainly assigned to the private sector of cultural production – thus neither to the public sector (public cultural promotion) nor to the intermediate sector (foundations, associations). However, artists and creative professionals are often active in all three sectors. From their point of view, the three submarkets should be seen as parts of the same system. In addition to its own market structures, the cultural and creative industries also build on the creative potential of the public and non-profit sub-sectors and has an innovative effect on them. Therefore, the cultural and creative industries can only be seen as a holistic system.[5]

Further information in our Creative Economies Reports and in the Research Notes.

Notes

[1] See also our complementary analysis on creative workers, that is the employed persons working in the creative sector as well as persons working in creative occupations outside the creative industries.

[2] The real development of GVA is not (yet) available for methodological reasons. However, the structural business statistics (STATENT) only partially reflects the pandemic’s impact: Thanks to short-time working and loss of earnings allowances, a significant proportion of Old-age and survivor’s insurance (OASI) contributions continued to be paid, even when employees were prohibited from carrying out their work. The data underlying STATENT cannot therefore fully reflect the declines in activity in some sectors. A specific series for the years affected by COVID-19 must therefore be constructed (see FSO, experimental statistics).

[3] See Christoph Weckerle, Simon Grand, Frédéric Martel, Roman Page and Fabienne Schmuki, Entrepreneurial Strategies for a Positive Economy, 3rd Creative Economies Report Switzerland, Zürich 2018.
See Christoph Weckerle, Roman Page, Simon Grand: Von der Kreativwirtschaft zu den Creative Economies. Kreativwirtschaftsbericht Schweiz, Zürich 2016.

[4] See the classification of creative industries according to the approach used by the ZCCE in the annexe.

[5] See Christoph Weckerle, Hubert Theler, Die Bedeutung der Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft für den Standort Zürich, Dritter Kreativwirtschaftsbericht Zürich, ZHdK 2010.