Statistics on Cultural Industries - International Trade Centre

and also reflect the social impact of the sector. This is particularly necessary in the developing worldwhere crafts, for example, have relatively greater economic importance than in other countries,and where many cultural experiences are not organized for profit.Similar to indicators for other economic sectors, indicators for the cultural industries may beassessed in terms of working population, output, capital, and productivity. Unless we include datainformation on other aspects of the sector, however, we will not get a proper picture of the sector.Such data should include information on arts and cultural programmes, the workforce engagedin skilled pursuits in the non-formal sector, their economic contributions and productivity growth,the number of patents or proprietary rights on products and processes, investments in researchand development (R & D) and in higher education, donations and expenditure towards socialwelfare and cultural activities, as well as non-economic factors such as the mobility of workers andcapital, societal regimes of law, civil rights and freedoms, socio-cultural and financial infrastructure,ethical and behavioral attributes of trust, reciprocity, co-operation, public participation, attitudesto minorities, etc.At the moment, most of the region’s countries do not collect data on cultural industries nor dothey have the capacity to do so. To be able to make decisions to promote cultural industries inthe most effective manner, countries, therefore, need to develop the capacity for national datacollection and analysis of the cultural industries sector.Through the application of the framework methodology in national data projects, the capacityof statistical offices in participating countries will be strengthened. At the end of the project,a national system for the production of key statistics on the cultural industries will have beenestablished, complete with guidelines and tools for data collection and analysis, reporting formats,and trends analysis pertaining to the sector.<strong>Statistics</strong> on Cultural IndustriesFramework for the Elaboration of National Data Capacity Building Projects