WASHINGTON — Creative industries including Hollywood and broadcasting contribute more to the U.S. economy than previously thought, the government said Monday in its first official analysis of the arts and culture sector’s economic value.
The report from the National Endowment for the Arts and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis shows arts and culture contributed more than $698 billion to the economy — about 4.32 percent of U.S. goods and services. The study of the creative sector’s contribution to U.S. gross domestic product is based on 2012 data, the most recent figures available, and includes nonprofit, for-profit and government-funded programs.
Six industries account for the bulk of arts and culture production, according to the analysis. They include broadcasting, movies and videos, publishing, retail sales, performing arts and advertising. Analysts found 4.7 million workers were employed in arts and culture production. Looking back more than a decade, the creative sector’s production hit its peak in 2002.
In 2012, arts and culture surpassed construction by $112 billion, as well as transportation, travel and tourism and agriculture.
“It’s a formidable presence from the economic point of view,” said Jane Chu, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Researchers also released the latest national Survey of Public Participation in the Arts results from 37,000 adults interviewed as a supplement to the Census Bureau’s 2012 population survey. Slightly more than half of Americans attended a live visual or performing arts activity, according to the survey.
States with significantly higher-than-average performing arts attendance included California, Connecticut, Colorado, North Dakota, Kansas, Maryland, Rhode Island and Washington. Four cities with especially high performing arts attendance were Denver, San Francisco, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
