Press Release 27/02/2025

CULTURE SATELLITE ACCOUNT. 2022

Cultural activities in the Basque Country generated value added of 1,713 million euros in 2022, 2.0% of GDP

In terms of employment, cultural activities accounted for 28,535 full-time equivalent jobs, 3.0% of the total

The Gross Value Added (GVA) of cultural activities stood at 1,713 million euros in 2022 in the Basque Country, equivalent to 2.0% of GDP for that year, according to data from the Culture Satellite Account prepared by Eustat. Although 2020 was heavily conditioned by the pandemic, 2022 showed clear signs of recovery with the year-on-year rate for GVA in the sector standing at 19.5% in respect of 2020. In terms of GDP, the cultural sector increased its contribution by one hundredth.

Of the sectors into which cultural activities are disaggregated, of particular note in terms of GVA generated was the “Audiovisual and multimedia” sector, which contributed 472 million euros in 2022, 27.6% of cultural GVA; followed by “Books and press” with 431 million, accounting for 25.2% and, in third place, “Visual arts” with 425 million, a contribution of 24.8%. These three sectors represented 77.6% of the total GVA generated by cultural activities. The “Performing arts” sector accounted for 9.7% and the remainder was divided between the sectors of “Archives and libraries” (4.6%), “Heritage” (4.1%) and “Interdisciplinary” (4%).

Employment, measured in full-time equivalent jobs (FTE), was marked by the contributions of “Books and press”, with 8,177 FTE jobs in 2022, accounting for 28.7% of total employment assigned to the culture sectors, followed by “Visual arts” with 7,943 jobs (27.8%) and “Audiovisual and multimedia” in third place with 6,935 jobs (24.3%).

In terms of employment, year-on-year rates in all sectors rose considerably in 2022, with noteworthy increases above 10% in “Performing Arts” (+24.5%), “Visual Arts” (+19.0%) and “Archives and libraries”, with 10.1%.

As regards the phases of the value chain of cultural goods and services, on one hand we can identify “Core activities”, which include “Creation and production”, “Manufacturing”, “Dissemination and distribution”, “Promotion and regulation” and “Education”; and on the other hand, “Auxiliary activities”, encompassing a part of “Manufacturing”, “Trade and repairs” and other activities.

Core activities, i.e. activities that are inherent to the cultural sphere, made the greatest contribution to cultural GVA, accounting for 86.1% in 2022. The most significant of these activities was “Creation and Production”, which includes the work of artists (for example, the creation of literary works), as well as the production of the cultural service when it is an integral part of the creative work itself (for example, a music concert or a theatre play performance). This stage accounted for 899 million euros of GVA, 52.5% in respect of the total of cultural GVA. Auxiliary activities refer to those that lead to the creation of products to facilitate the use and enjoyment of cultural goods and services (for example, the manufacture of musical instruments). These activities accounted for 13.9% of the GVA in the culture sector in 2022, 239 million euros. Of particular note within these were activities related to “Trade and repairs”, which include marketing activities for audio and video players, as well as their repair, among others, with a contribution of 223 million and 13.0% of total cultural GVA.

In addition to reporting on cultural activities, the Culture Satellite Account in the Basque Country also provides complete data on activities linked to intellectual property. This category excludes certain cultural activities, such as those related to the management of cultural heritage and to education, promotion and cultural regulation, but includes others linked to advertising and computing.

The GVA associated with activities linked to intellectual property is, in general, greater than that generated by cultural activities in the strictest sense and in 2022 it was 1,959 million euros, with an increase of 23.7% compared to 2020. In terms of GDP, activities linked to intellectual property accounted for 2.26% in 2022.

In 2022, the greatest contribution to GVA within activities linked to intellectual property corresponded to “Strictly cultural activities”, with 1,456 million euros, accounting for 74.3% of the total; compared to 328 million euros for activities related to “Computing” (16.7%) and 176 million euros for those related to “Advertising” (9.0%).

Methodological note:

The Culture Satellite Account of the Basque Country (CSA) is an operation that is part of all the other satellite accounts prepared by Eustat. A satellite account is a statistical operation that reflects the reality of an economic sector, employing the same principles, categories and valuation criteria as those applied to the general framework of National Accounting. This method of operation guarantees full comparability between the results obtained for the sector and those obtained for the economy as a whole. The Culture Satellite Account is based on the specification of the culture sector as proposed by UNESCO in the latest edition of its Framework for Cultural Statistics, in 2009, as well as other national and international methodological references.

To coincide with the dissemination of the Economic Accounts of the Basque Country referring to 2022 (definitive estimates), Eustat has carried out a change of base year (2022 base year) following the European extraordinary revision policy established by Eurostat and setting this reference point for all the National Accounts to be disseminated in 2024. As a result of this revision, GVA, Employment and other variables involved in obtaining the account have had to be updated with the new figures.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea/Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel.: 945 01 75 62