Creative Economy Index

As part of a creative momentum project we have developed a series of indices assessing different aspects of creative and cultural sector development in the project partner regions.  Our ‘Creative Economy Index’ measures the relative regional performance of the creative economy in the project regions. Read the full report here

Creative economy as an ecosystem

The Creative Economy Index goes beyond focusing on the extent of development of creative sector enterprises but also includes data to encompass the wider creative ecosystem in the regions. It is made up of 26 indicators and brings together data across five themes:

• Creative Sector Industries
• Environment for Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• Cultural Infrastructure and Consumption
• Digital Connectivity and Cultural Production
• Population Diversity and Peripherality

Key results

None of the creative momentum project regions have a low performance on the Creative Economy Index. The creative economy is a notable development in all of these peripheral regions.

The Creative Economy Index results highlight the strengths each region can build on, but also weaknesses in the overall creative economy ecosystem in these five peripheral places. Some of the regional findings include:

• North East Iceland emerges at the top of the Creative Economy Index and shows a medium to high level of development. At the theme level, the region’s weakest result is in relation to the ‘Environment for Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation’.
• While second on the Creative Economy Index, Mid Sweden achieves a score close to North East Iceland and shows a medium to high level of development. In contrast to North East Iceland, it achieves a medium to high score in the ‘Environment for Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ theme.
• Northern Finland achieves a score indicating a medium level of development on the Creative Economy Index and emerged in third place. At the theme level, its highest score is on the ‘Environment for Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ theme. Its weakest performance was in the ‘Cultural Infrastructure and Consumption’ theme.
• While the West of Ireland emerges as the fourth best performing region overall, it is just one point behind Northern Finland. The region achieves a score indicating a medium level of development on the Creative Economy Index. A weakness emerged in relation to ‘Cultural Infrastructure and Consumption’ where its score indicates a medium to low level of development.
• South East Northern Ireland emerges in fifth place. However it performs well on two themes, ‘Population Diversity and Peripherality’ and ‘Digital Connectivity and Cultural Production’ which both showed a medium to high level of development.

Future work

We also hope our Creative Economy Index can help to open debate on how to evaluate the development of the creative economy in peripheral contexts. It should be understood as a pilot index testing how creative sector development in peripheral regions might be measured. One reason for this is that available data drive the indicators included. Initially, our search for data was driven by ten themes and over 100 indicators.  Limited availability of comparable data resulted in our final five themes and set of 26 indicators.

For more information read the full report here