The creative economy amounts to 3.1% of Brazil’s GDP

The Itau Cultural Observatory conducts the first ever GDP survey of culture and industries such as fashion, architecture and advertising

The creative economy accounts for 3.1% of Brazil’s GDP and employs 7% of the country’s workers, showing a new measurement platform from the Itaú Cultural Observatory.

The data, which was compiled using a methodology that took a year and a half to develop, revealed that cultural activities and other creative sectors — such as fashion, software development, architecture and advertising — moved R$230.1 billion in 2020, the most recent year in which it occurred. All data used is available.

From 2012 to 2020, the creative sectors’ GDP grew by 78% in absolute terms, while the Brazilian economy as a whole grew by 55%.

On the other hand, participation in the country’s GDP increased from 2.7% to 3.1%. This led to the creative economy overtaking the transportation sector. In 2020, according to IBGE data, the automotive sector accounted for 2.1% of Brazilian GDP.

Creative sector companies

The Itau Cultural Observatory has identified 130,000 companies in the creative economy, which at the end of last year were responsible for 7.4 million formal and informal jobs.

Thus, the sector with the largest number of companies is fashion (50,084), followed by advertising and business services (24,193), information technology services (12,932) and digital software and game development (10,674).

The methodology was developed by a group of researchers led by Leandro Valiatti, from the University of Manchester (UK) and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

The method uses data from the National Household Sample Survey, the Inventory of Social Information (RAIS), the Serial Assessment Program, and the Annual Business Survey, among others.