Feasibility study on data collection and

analysis in the cultural and creative

sectors (CCS) in the EU

15 March 2016

European Parliament - CULT Committee

KEA

CCS’ impacts

20 years of efforts to improve CCS’ statistics

• 1995: European Council resolution on culture stats and economic growth.

• 1997-2000: ‘LEG-Culture’ group (1997-2000).

• 2001-2004: WG on Cultural Stats first Eurostat Pocketbook (2007).

• 2009-2011: ESSnet-Culture’s new reference system.

• 2014-2018: Eurostat to revise and implement ESSnet’s framework.

2014: Feasibility study requested by EU institutions in the framework of the

Regulation establishing the Creative Europe programme (art. 15.2)

Regulation establishing the Creative Europe programme

Article 15

2. {…} the Commission shall carry out a feasibility study exploring the

possibility of collecting and analysing data in the cultural and creative

sectors other than the audiovisual sector, and shall present the results of

that study to the European Parliament and to the Council.

Methodology

Screening of Eurostat

statistics

Mapping of

alternative sources

Benchmarking of

Cultural

Observatories

Assessment of needs & gaps

Policy recommendations & scenarios

• EU Structural Business

Statistics

• Community Innovation Survey

• EU Labour Force Survey

• Comext

• Adult Education Survey

• Social Income and Living

Conditions survey

• Time Use Survey

• Household Budget Surveys

• ICT Use Survey

• Administrative sources

• Business registers

• Trade and professional

associations

• ‘Big data’ from the Internet

• Creative Europe projects

• European Audiovisual

Observatory

• European Group on Museum

Statistics

• Compendium of Cultural Policies

and Trends in Europe

• ENUMERATE project

• Budapest Observatory

• Observatoire de la Culture et

des communications du Québec

• UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Findings (I): major challenges in European CCS’ statistics

Sectoral

• The international classification system (NACE and ISCO) not adapted

(need for revision: video games, music, craft)

• No or poor coverage of heritage, libraries, festivals, crafts, design, fashion

• Difficult to measure GVA in heritage, museums, libraries, performing arts

Transversal

• Not a priority area for statistical bodies

• High number of small and micro-companies – difficult to capture

• Rights’ revenues does not clearly appear from official statistics

• Detailed data on new sales trends and delivery methods are missing

• No measure of cultural diversity

• Poor statistics on trade in services and immaterial goods (i.e. e-books).

CCS statistics measure partially Europe’s excellence and competitiveness of

the sector vs. EU wishes to build a creative economy.

Findings (II): alternative sources to better grasp CCS’ value

• Gather evidence on sectors currently little covered by European

official statistics, notably the ‘heritage sectors’ (i.e. by collating data from

national ministries, EGMUS and EBLIDA);

• Add new insights and provide ‘market intelligence’ in areas which fall

outside the scope of European official statistics to understand new sales

patterns and delivery methods, and forms of engagement in cultural

activities (e.g. through professional associations, private companies);

• Improve official statistics in the long term (particularly in relation to micro-

companies) through the development of new mapping methods based, for

instance, on the use of Internet data (i.e. ‘big data’ approaches).

Source: EGMUS accessed 11 April 2015

Example 1: gather evidence on poorly covered sectors

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100A

ustr

ia 2

012

Bulg

aria

201

2

Czec

h Re

p. 2

013

Esto

nia

2013

Finl

and

2013

Fran

ce 2

010

Hun

gary

201

3

Irel

and

2005

Latv

ia 2

013

Luxe

mbo

urg

2011

Mac

edon

ia 2

009

Slov

enia

201

3

Spai

n 20

12

Swed

en 2

011

Switz

erla

nd 2

013

Net

herl

ands

201

1

Volunteers as % all staff Subsidies as % of all income

Example 2: add new insights

Figure 3 - Weekly web searches for ‘Performing Arts’ as a share of total searches January 2004 to February 2015, indexed to 2004

Source: Google Trends http://www.google.ca/trends/explore#cat=0-3-

23&geo=DE%2C%20FR%2C%20GB%2C%20IT%2C%20PL&cmpt=geo&tz=

Example 3: improve official statistics on micro-companies

• Mapping of the UK video game industry (NESTA, 2014) uses a ‘hybrid’ approach:

official statistics + web-based search for companies whose web sites included

key words describing their business function (‘web scraping’ technique).

• +90 per cent of the companies identified are micro-companies.

1,320

582

1,902

Limits of alternative sources

• Geographical coverage

EU28 coverage not always ensured, but often the majority of MS is

covered;

Even if all MS are covered, data might not be available for all countries.

• Quality & comparability issues

No application of the European Statistical System’s (ESS) or other

international quality standards – but internal quality control and

validation;

Data are rarely comparable as coming from very different and mostly

incomparable sources – however, comparability of data in business

registers is satisfactory.

Conclusions

• Importance of reliable set of data to show impact of CCS and

inform policy making (Culture, Education, Trade, Innovation,

Internal Market, Competition, etc.) towards a “Creative Europe”.

• Guiding principles to recommendations & scenarii:

Feasible, given financial constraints

Europe to adopt a leading position at UN level for better classifications

Build on the existing - ESSnet, Eurostat - but address gaps

Inclusive - mobilise the industry and complementary data sources

Time-bound - can be implemented in the short and long term

(incremental approach)

Key recommendations

Implementation - 3 Scenarii

• Ensure the sustainability of Eurostat’s work programme on CCS’ statistics after 2018 (least ambitious).

Scenario 1

• EU institutions to engage with alternative sources and improve the quality of their data (capacity building) + CCS Virtual Platform + Creative Leadership Board as an incentive for the industry to engage – complementary to Eurostat.

Scenario 2

• An EU CCS Observatory to engage with alternative sources and improve quality of alternative data + develop “big data approaches” to better measure CCS (most ambitious) – complementary to Eurostat+EAO.

Scenario 3

Thank you!

Valentina Montalto

vmontalto@keanet.eu

51 Rue du Trône

B -1050 Brussels

+32 2 289 26 00

www.keanet.eu

Creative Europe

@KEAtweets

Terms Of References (TOR) of the Study

• CCS definition: ESSnet + Creative Europe.

• Data sources (both public and private) to be identified along six

statistical axes: cultural capital of Europe (e.g. number of museums and

heritage sites), entrepreneurial dimension of CCS in the EU, CCS labour

market in the EU, contribution of CCS to the EU economy, cultural

diversity and participation in Europe, financing and expenditure.