Creative industries are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the WA economy according to the first official economic impact study published last month by Creative Nature on behalf of Perth City Council and the WA State Government.

Perth Creative Industries – An Analysis identifies the spread and diversity of creative businesses in metropolitan Perth across all sectors, including Music and Performing Arts; Film, Television and Radio; Advertising and Marketing; Software, Web and Multimedia Development; Writing, Publishing and Print Media; Architecture; Design and Visual Art.

The study shows that while creative industries make an essential contribution to the cultural aspects of our society, they also make a significant economic impact, with annual revenue of $10.6 billion and rising. The industry now employs more than 31,000 people and has a growth rate of 7.3 per cent - four times faster than the total WA workforce.

The research is part of a national project to map creative industries across Australia and was jointly sponsored by the City of Perth and the WA Departments of Culture and the Arts, Industry and Resources and Premier and Cabinet.

“This was a particularly important job for Creative Nature because we needed to deliver a product that would be highly visible to our industry peers and which would reinforce the credibility of our own industry in the eyes of government policy and financial decision-makers,” said Principal Consultant Marie Howarth.

The Creative Nature design team produced a 24-page printed summary and published the full 200-page study as an interactive HTML document on CD-Rom. View the design in our portfolio.

The findings were released by the Minister for Culture and the Arts, Sheila McHale, on December 19, 2007.

Read the media release here.