New data released by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage shows the arts and creative sector contributes $17.5 billion to New Zealand’s economy, or 4.2 percent of GDP. The data, updated annually, includes insights for the year ending March 2024.

"The arts and creative sector make a significant contribution to the lives of all New Zealanders, and it’s great to be able to measure economic impacts as part of our wider insights programme," says Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage Secretary for Culture and Heritage, Leauanae Laulu Mac Leauanae.

"Overall, the GDP contribution remains relatively steady in comparison to last year. There has been a slight increase in the number of people employed and number of businesses within the sector.

"We’ve worked with Infometrics to capture these statistics and the economic breakdowns. This data is valuable, as it gives us a good indication of how the arts and cultural sectors are faring against the rest of the economy."

Leauanae says: "For the first time, we’ve published specific data about New Zealand's heritage sector. The heritage sector contributes $5.1 billion to GDP, employing just under 36,000 people."

Key statistics from the Infometrics economic sector profiles:

• The arts sector’s GDP contribution grew by 2.5 percent from the previous year - compared to a 1.4 percent growth for the total economy.
• The data is beginning to reflect the ongoing challenges in the media sector, which had negative GDP growth of -1.9 percent and employment growth of -0.9 percent. The slight decrease in GDP across the arts and creative sector overall is -0.3 percent.
• There are 117,912 people employed in the wider arts and creative sector. We expect just under 8,700 new jobs will be created by 2030.

Arts and creative sector economic profiles

Sport and recreation profile

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