Creative industries

Key facts

Auckland is home of the creative industries

Auckland city plays a vital role in the regional and national economy, accounting for 50 per cent of the Auckland region's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Auckland City Council is committed to supporting the city's economic growth and to creating an environment that encourages growth across many industry sectors.

In 2005, Auckland City Council published Snapshot: Auckland's creative industries research report, a research report that explored the economic contribution creative industries make and the challenges they face. The Snapshot report deepened our understanding of the creative industries and highlighted key strengths that make Auckland home of the creative sector.

The numbers and location information set out in Snapshot: Auckland's creative industries have been updated. The results show that the creative industries are still extremely important to the city's economy.

The analysis shows that Auckland city has the largest concentration of creative sector employment and businesses in the country, as well as the highest growth rate of the cities. The numbers alone clearly demonstrate the importance of including the creative industries when considering national and regional strategies for economic development.

Since the businesses and activities that make up the creative sector are extremely diverse, the analysis includes a breakdown into sub-sectors based on industry classifications.

These sub-sectors are:

design, comprised of advertising services, architectural services and graphic design
screen production and radio, including television services, film and video production and radio services
publishing, including newspaper printing or publishing, other periodical publishing, book and other publishing and authors
visual arts, crafts and photography, including jewellery and silverware manufacturing, photographic studios, visual arts and crafts
performing arts, including services to the arts, performing arts venues, music and theatre productions and performers
music, including composers, sound recording studios and recorded media manufacturing and publishing.

Creative industries are defined as those industries that have their origin in individual creativity skill and talent, and have a potential for wealth and job creation through generating and exploiting intellectual property.

You can download a full copy of the report The numbers 2007 here:

Auckland's creative industries: The numbers 2007 (1608kb) PDF

Below is a summary of key facts, also available to download here:

Auckland's creative industries: Summary of Key Facts 2007 (87kb) PDF

With its wealth of talented and creative people and businesses, Auckland is, without a doubt, the home of New Zealand's creative industries.

The Auckland region, including Auckland city (which accounts for half of the region's employment) is essential to New Zealand's economic future. When it comes to the creative industries, Auckland is New Zealand's major host.

The Auckland region has half of the nation's creative sector jobs. Of all the cities in New Zealand, Auckland city has the highest number of people employed in the creative industries.

The creative sector in Auckland city is sizeable and significant

The creative sector has approximately 13,100 employees located in Auckland city. This equates to 4.3 per cent of the city's total employment. In comparison, the creative sector accounts for 1.9 per cent of total national employment. In Auckland city, the creative sector is similar in total employment size to the construction industry.

Creative sector employment is concentrated in three sub-sectors

The design sub-sector (made up of advertising, architecture and graphic design) contributes 5250 employees. It is the largest source of employment in the creative industries, followed by the screen production and radio sub-sector (film, television, video and radio), with 3580 employees, and the publishing sub-sector (comprising newspaper, book and periodical publishing) which has 3154 employees.

These sub-sectors make up over 90 per cent of total creative sector employment in Auckland city.

Auckland city is a significant centre of the region's creative sector employment

The majority of creative sector activity in the Auckland region occurs in Auckland city, with 79 per cent of the region's creative sector employment.

Auckland city is a significant centre of New Zealand's creative sector employment

Of all New Zealand's cities, Auckland city has the largest number of people employed in the creative industries. Of New Zealand's creative sector workforce, 39 per cent is located in Auckland city, compared with Auckland city's 17 per cent share of New Zealand's overall workforce.¹

Growth in New Zealand's creative sector employment has primarily been concentrated in Auckland city

Employment in the creative industries in Auckland city between 2000 and 2006 grew at nearly three times the national creative sector growth rate.

The creative sector in Auckland city is a significant contributor to GDP

The creative sector's stand-alone contribution to Auckland city's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is estimated at over $1.7 billion for 2006, which is 7 per cent of the city's total GDP. The creative sector is also an enabler of economic activity in other sectors.

Auckland city plays a specialised role in the regional economy

Auckland city provides 75 per cent of the region's finance and insurance jobs, 81 per cent of information communication technology (ICT) jobs, 79 per cent of the creative industries (design, screen production and radio, publishing, visual arts/crafts, photography, performing arts and music), 71 per cent of communication services, and 68 per cent of regional employment in property and business services.²

Auckland city is a dominant economic player both regionally and nationally

Auckland city remains the business centre of New Zealand.

The city provides jobs for 306,876 people, which is 51 per cent of the region's employment.

The above is a summary of the findings in Auckland's creative industries: The numbers 2007. Unless otherwise noted, all figures are from the report.

Footnotes

1 - Statistics New Zealand 2006, Auckland City Council 2007

2 - Auckland City Council Employment Report, 2006

3 - Auckland City Council Employment Report, 2006

For more information, read Snapshot: Auckland's creative industries research report.

To see what the council is doing to support the creative industries, see Blueprint: Growing Auckland's creative industries.

Updated August 2008