HELSINKI: The role of culture in the economy fell further slightly, and its share of GDP was 2.9 per cent in 2014, whereas it was 3.0 per cent one year earlier. The falling tendency was visible in production, consumption and particularly in employment, according to Statistics Finland. The significant exception was the games industry, which grew strongly in 2014 as well. Most of the activity of the games industry remains outside the limitations of the actual cultural satellite, but separate calculations have been made on the whole games industry for this release.
Although measured in current prices, the value added of culture was in 2014 at the same level as in 2013, the share of culture in the value added of the whole economy has diminished slightly from before, as the value added of the entire economy grew. In most industry groups, value added was either unchanged or slightly decreased, but small growth was visible in the fields of live culture and radio and TV activities.
In 2014, the share of combined consumption expenditure of culture in all consumption expenditure went down slightly. Altogether, private consumption expenditure grew somewhat, but the sum used by households on culture diminished, so the share of culture in consumption also decreased. The share of culture in public consumption expenditure remained unchanged as per the statistics.
In 2014, the share of culture in employment was 3.5 per cent. The share of culture in employment is clearly higher than its share of value added or output, which were both 2.9 per cent in 2014. The labour domination of culture is affected by the relatively low pay level, part-time work and absence of large companies producing large profits.
Despite the downturn, culture still has a fairly important role in the national economy, because its share of consumption is nevertheless around six per cent and its share of employed 3.5 per cent. Beside the culture satellite, Statistics Finland has also calculated total development between 2008 and 2014 for the games industry that has received much publicity.
