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Creative industries represent 5.7% of P.R. sales activity

Graphic design firms are among those included under the definition of creative industries. (Credit: Elias Bara - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0/Wiki)

Graphic design firms are among those included under the definition of creative industries. (Credit: Elias Bara – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0/Wiki)

Creative industries — those dedicated to design, arts, media and services — generate nearly 70,000 jobs and $10 billion for the Puerto Rican economy, representing about 5.7% of sales generated by all companies on the island, the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute disclosed in a recent report.

The “Puerto Rico Creative Industries 2014” study, which the agency published for the first time over the weekend based on U.S. Census Bureau number for 2012, small companies (with fewer than 10 employees) dominate 87 percent of Puerto Rico’s creative industries as defined by Law 173 of 2014, also known as the “Law for Promoting Creative Industries.”

There is currently no consensus on the type of industries that should be classified as “creative.” However, Article 3 of the Act defines creative industries based on the following list of industries:

  • Design (graphic, industrial, fashion and interiors)
  • Arts (music, visual arts, performing arts and publications)
  • Media (application development, video games, online media, digital content and multimedia)
  • Creative Services (architecture and creative education)

The report published presented all the statistics already available on these industries, the agency said. But it also presents several additional statistics on industries that have been classified as “creative” in previous studies by UNESCO, among others:

  • Other Arts (film, jewelry, sewing)
  • Other media (radio, television, cable, books)
  • Other creative services (advertising, drawing)
  • Heritage (libraries, museums and historical sites)

According to the “Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages” (QCEW) in 2001, Puerto Rico had 638 establishments in the creative industries category that paid unemployment insurance to their workers.

In 2014, 742 establishments were recorded. That year, there were 2.1 creative establishments per 10,000 inhabitants, and creative industries accounted for for 1.6 percent of all private establishments.

When the broader definition of creative industries (Law 173+) is used, those figures amounted to 2,244 establishments in 2001 and 2,281 establishments in 2014. In 2014, there were 6.4 creative establishments per 10,000 inhabitants and creative industries accounted for 4.9 percent of all private establishments.

According to the QCEW, the fastest-growing area in the creative industries between 2001 and 2014, were computer systems design. The same report showed that between 2010 and 2014, 59 municipalities showed per capita increases in the number of creative industries establishments.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s External Commerce database showed that between 2002 and 2015, all the creative industries (Law 173+) import more goods to Puerto Rico than they export from here, the Statistics Institute report showed.

Statistics also show that 63 percent of creative industry employees are male.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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