Operating revenue in the culture and creative industries was approximately 168 billion ISK for the year 2023 and increased about 9.8%, or 15 billion ISK, from 2022, when it was approximately 153 billion ISK. When adjusting for inflation, the increase was about 1.0%.
Operating revenue was the highest in film and TV for both years, approximately 37 billion ISK for the year 2022 and approximately 41 billion ISK in the year 2023. There was a proportional increase between 2022 and 2023 in all categories and the highest was in performing arts about 42.1% and cultural heritage, about 30.0%.
Over a five-year period, 2019-2023, the total increase in operating revenue was 48.9% or 17.7% when adjusted for inflation. The largest increase was in performing arts, or 128.9%, and cultural heritage at 98.6%. Meanwhile, there was a decrease in printing of 11.8%. The average increase per year during the period was 8.3% a year.
Number of enterprises
Enterprises in the cultural and creative sector were 3,295 in the year 2022 and 3,585 in the year 2023, which is a 8.8% increase. Most of the enterprises were in film and TV, 687 in total, and the fewest were in computer games, 16. There was an increase in all fields expect printing where enterprises decreased by three. Proportionally, the highest increase was in performing arts at about 43 enterprises, which equates to a 23.3% increase.
About the data
Statistics Iceland‘s cultural indicators are based on a special side categorisation of enterprises and organisations into cultural and creative industries, allowing for a breakdown between industries. The categorisation was developed with the needs of Icelandic users for official statistics in mind and is based on a system of categorising NACE rev. 2 economic activities either fully or partly into specific cultural and creative industries.
Those economic activities which are not fully categorised as falling within a specific cultural and creative industry are then examined and organisations within it manually categorised into cultural and creative industries. The aim is to categorise all organisations which have 3 million ISK or more in operating revenue for at least one year during the reference period, covering at least 90% of the total operating revenues within the population. Unfortuantely the cultural indicators are currently only available in Icelandic but the numbers behind them can be found in webtables.