Philippine creative economy rises to P1.94 trillion in 2024

MANILA, Philippines — The value of the local creative economy rose by nine percent in 2024, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Preliminary data from the PSA showed that the country’s creative economy was worth P1.94 trillion last year, up from P1.78 trillion in 2023.

In 2022, the creative economy was valued at P1.62 trillion.

While the sector’s value went up last year, its share in the country’s gross domestic product was unchanged at 7.3 percent from 2023.

The creative economy covers the following industries: audio and audiovisual media activities; digital interactive goods and service activities; advertising, research and development and other artistic service activities; symbols and images and other related activities; media publishing and printing activities; music, arts and entertainment activities; visual arts activities;traditional cultural expression activities and art galleries, museums, ballrooms, conventions and trade shows and related activities.

Symbols and images and other related activities accounted for the largest share of the total creative economy last year at 33 percent or P640.29 billion.

Advertising, research and development and other artistic service activities placed second with a 21.4-percent share or P414.53 billion, followed by digital interactive goods and service activities with a 20.6-percent share or P398.95 billion.

Employment in the creative industries rose to 7.51 million last year from 7.23 million in 2023.

The creative industries accounted for 15.4 percent of the country’s total employment last year.

Of the creative industries, traditional cultural expression activities had the highest share in the sector’s total employment at 36.6 percent last year.

Symbols and images and other related activities ranked second with 29.5 percent, followed by advertising, research and development and other artistic service activities with 17.9 percent.

The data on the creative economy is based on the results of a pilot study conducted by the PSA.

As the methodology is still being refined, the results are considered preliminary.