Culture in numbers

The cultural sector plays an important social role, but there are few estimates concerning its economic importance. Economists from our Institute aim at filling this gap in our report “The economic importance of the cultural sector in Poland in 2008–2015”, which presents an estimate of economic importance of the cultural sector based on two most common measures: employment and value added generated by the sector.

In 2015, the cultural sector employed 300,000 people. This comprised 1.9% of the total employment in the Polish economy. In turn, the value added generated by the cultural sector amounted to PLN 30 billion, which corresponded to 1.9% of the value added in the entire economy and 1.7% of the GDP.

Gaining importance in terms of employment, losing in terms of value added

Between 2008 and 2015, employment in the cultural sector showed an upward trend. In 2008, it amounted to 259,000 people, compared to 300,000 in 2015, which meant an increase by 41,000 people. The value added generated by the cultural sector virtually did not change. In 2008, it amounted to almost PLN 31 billion, whilst it reached PLN 30 billion in 2015 (in 2015 prices). However, at the same time the overall economy grew fast, which resulted in the rapid decrease of culture’s share in value added for the economy as a whole: from 2.4% in 2008 to 1.9% in 2015.

The complete results of our research are published in Polish. We encourage you to read the summary in English and see the infographic.

The project received funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.