News Release
Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, U.S. and States
New statistics for 2018 and 2019; prior years updated
The Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) shows that arts and cultural economic activity, adjusted for inflation, increased 3.7 percent in 2019 after increasing 2.3 percent in 2018 (table 1). Arts and cultural economic activity accounted for 4.3 percent, or $919.7 billion, of current-dollar gross domestic product (GDP), in 2019 (tables 2 and 3).
Core arts and cultural production industries, which include performing arts, museums, design services, fine arts education, and education services, increased 3.2 percent, adjusted for inflation, in 2019. Supporting arts and cultural production industries, which includes art support services and information services, increased 3.9 percent in 2019 (table 1). Information services was the leading contributor to the overall 4.4 percent current-dollar growth in arts and cultural production at the national level in 2019, followed by design services.
- For performing arts, real value added increased 2.6 percent in 2019 after increasing 5.4 percent in 2018. The leading contributor to the increase was independent artists, writers, and performers, which increased 2.2 percent in 2019 after increasing 5.6 percent in 2018.
- Museums increased 4.0 percent in 2019, after decreasing 1.3 percent in 2018.
- For design services, real value added increased 3.7 percent in 2019 after increasing 5.4 percent in 2018.
- Fine arts education increased 6.5 percent in 2019 after increasing 12.4 percent in 2018.
- Education services increased 2.1 percent in 2019 after increasing 1.7 percent in 2018.
Nominal value added
Nominal value added (not adjusted for inflation) increased 4.4 percent nationally in 2019 (table 2). The leading contributor to the increase was information services, which includes the broadcasting and publishing industries (table 4). Core arts and cultural production industries increased 3.4 percent, to a level of $201.5 billion; the leading contributors to the increase were design services and performing arts. Supporting arts and cultural industries increased 4.8 percent in 2019, to a level of $696.0 billion; the leading contributor to the increase was information services. In 2019, nominal value added in arts and cultural industries increased in every state and the District of Columbia except West Virginia and Wyoming. The percent change in value added in arts and cultural industries across all states ranged from 10.5 percent in Washington to –5.0 percent in Wyoming (table 2).
In Washington, the state with the largest increase in value added, retail industries and publishing were the leading contributors to the increase in value added (table 4). Construction was the leading contributor to the decrease in value added in Wyoming and West Virginia.
For states and the District of Columbia, the arts and cultural share of total GDP ranged from 8.8 percent in the District of Columbia to 1.4 percent in Delaware (table 3). The share for most states ranged between 2 and 5 percent. The District of Columbia, Washington, California, New York, and Nevada were the only areas where the arts and culture share of total GDP exceeded 5 percent.
The top arts and cultural industries varied among the states. In the District of Columbia, government and broadcasting were the leading contributors to the share of total state GDP (table 3). Publishing and retail industries were the leading contributors to the share of GDP in Washington, while other information services and motion pictures were the leading contributors to the share of GDP in California.
Employment
Arts and cultural employment nationwide increased 1.2 percent in 2019 (table 8). The total number of arts and cultural jobs for the nation was 5.2 million. Arts and cultural employment increased in 35 states and the District of Columbia. The percent change in arts and cultural employment across all states ranged from 7.1 percent in Washington to –6.7 percent in Wyoming.
Washington had 185,741 jobs related to arts and culture, representing 5.0 percent of all jobs in the state. Construction was the leading contributor to the increase in arts and cultural employment in Washington (table 9). In Wyoming, construction was the leading contributor to the decrease in arts and cultural employment.
Compensation
Arts and cultural compensation nationwide increased 3.9 percent in 2019 (table 8). Arts and cultural compensation increased in 47 states and the District of Columbia and was unchanged in two. The percent change in arts and cultural compensation across all states ranged from 13.1 percent in Washington to –5.7 percent in Wyoming.
Today, BEA also released updated national-level arts and cultural production statistics on output, value added, intermediate inputs, employment, and compensation from 2014 to 2017 with new statistics for 2018 and 2019 and updated state-level statistics on value added, employment, and compensation from 2001 to 2017 with new statistics for 2018 and 2019. These revised and newly available statistics primarily reflect the incorporation of revised and newly available source data. Combined with new and revised arts and cultural production-specific source data, these improvements allow the arts and cultural production statistics to more accurately capture the dynamics of this sector. With this release, the arts and cultural production statistics reflect the incorporation of the 2020 annual updates of BEA's National and Regional Economic Accounts.
BEA's Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account is supported by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.