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These pages summarise the downloadable PDF documents. If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of the PDF documents in a more accessible format, please email [email protected].

Introduction

Infometrics sector profiles provide data on a range of employment, business and productivity characteristics for the arts and creative sector.

These economic profiles enhance our understanding of the contribution that the different parts of the cultural system provide to New Zealand. Manatū Taonga aims to continue to develop data, evidence, and insights for the entire cultural system. 

Having economic data, such as GDP, employment, and business information, is not only important for demonstrating the economic context of these sectors but is also an essential puzzle piece for our understanding of the wide value of these sectors.

The latest annual data on this page (excluding forecasts) is for the year to March 2024.

Profiles and one-page summaries for 2024 are available for the:

  • Overall arts and creative sector, broken down into
    • Arts sector
    • Heritage sector
    • Māori arts and creative sector
    • Media sector
  • Sport and recreation sector

New Zealand’s arts and creative sector contributed $17.5 billion to New Zealand’s GDP, or 4.2 percent of the total economy, in the year to March 2024.

The arts and creative sector experienced a marginal decline (-0.3 percent) in its GDP contribution from the prior year (3.9 percent). This contrasts with the 1.4 percent growth registered in the rest of the economy in the year to March 2024.

In some parts of the arts and creative sector, GDP growth was negative. This is the case of the media sub-sector which reported negative growth of -1.9% for the year to March 2024.

117,912 people held primary employment in the arts and creative sector in the year to March 2024. Within this workforce, 11,129 identify as Māori.

Refer to the one-page summary and individual report documents for more detail.

About the profiles

Since 2020, Manatū Taonga has measured the economic characteristics of the arts and creative sector using custom profiles of business and employment data supplied by Infometrics Ltd. These profiles more closely represent the sector than the standard StatsNZ Arts and Recreation profile.

The profiles use government employment and business data using standard occupation (ANZSCO) and industry (ANZSIC) codes. Manatū Taonga has used a combination of industries and occupations to define and better represent the sector.

In addition to the main arts and creative sector profile, which looks across all of arts, culture, heritage and media and broadcasting, there are four specific sub-sector profiles:

  • Māori arts and creative
  • Arts only
  • Media only
  • Heritage only

Summary of key data

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Overall, the arts and creative sectors’ GDP contribution was $17.5 billion, representing 4.2 percent of New Zealand’s total GDP. This marks a decline from the previous year (-0.3 percent).

Two of the four sectors within the overarching profile registered a growth in GDP contribution from the prior year: the arts sector (2.5 percent) and the heritage sector (1.0 percent).   

However, other parts of the arts and creative sector experienced negative GDP growth, particularly the media sector (-1.9 percent), followed by the Māori arts and creative sector, which saw a slight decline (-0.1 percent).

Employment and businesses

Primary employment in the arts and creative sector grew by 0.8 percent in the year to March 2024 to 117,912 filled jobs, compared to 2.2 percent growth for the total economy. 

The table below provides further information about employment and business growth across the cultural system.

Sector profileNumber of filled jobs- Year to March 2024Percentage growth in employment from prior year
(to March 2023)		Number of businessesPercentage growth in businesses from prior year
(to March 2023)
Arts & Creative117,9120.8%37,5040.7%
Arts & Creative- Māori11,1291.2%3,4331.3%
Arts28,8922.3%11,5112.9%
Media25,141-0.9%8,0900.1%
Heritage35,7601.4%7,3760.1%
Sport and recreation72,7774.2%17,5733.2%
Total economy2,807,8342.2%649,1790.9%

By 2030, primary employment in the arts and creative sector is forecasted to grow to 126,595 filled jobs.

Self-employment in the arts and creative sector has reached 30.3 percent, which is double the 15.5 percent rate for the overall economy.

Regional differences

Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland continues to be the home of the bulk of the creative sector, responsible for $8.5 billion of the arts and creative sector’s GDP contribution, 43.8 percent of employment (51,692 jobs), and 43 percent of businesses (16,129 businesses).

Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington (17,925 filled jobs) and Waitaha Canterbury (13,339 filled jobs) have the next highest proportion of creative workers.

Which regions do people work in?

Map showing regional employment figures - image description below
This map shows the regional spread of the number of people in the arts and creative sector.

Image description: 
Map showing regional breakdown of employment (number of filled jobs and % of total).
Auckland: 51,692 (43.8%)
Bay of Plenty: 5,564 (4.7%)
Waikato: 7,182 (6.1%) 
Wellington: 17,925 (15.2%)
Rest of North Island: 11,541 (9.7%)
Canterbury: 13,339 (11.3%)
Otago: 6,054 (5.1%)
Rest of South Island: 4,615 (3.9%)