X-ray of the Spanish cultural industry

The twelfth edition of the 2016 Cultural Statistics Yearbook prepared by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports includes all aspects related to the cultural industries in relation to employment and companies, public and private financing, intellectual property, foreign trade...

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports has presented the twelfth edition of the Yearbook of Cultural Statistics 2016. This study provides a selection of the most significant statistical results in the cultural field from various sources to facilitate knowledge of the situation and evolution of culture in Spain, its social value and its character as a source of wealth and economic development in Spanish society.

The Yearbook includes a selection of the most relevant results in the cultural field, prepared from the multiple sources available. On this occasion, the main indicators for the five-year period 2011-2015 are included. The various chapters of the Yearbook are structured in three blocks. The first includes the results that affect different areas: employment and companies, public and private financing, intellectual property, foreign trade, tourism, education and cultural habits. The second offers more specific information, referring to some of the following aspects: heritage, museums, archives, libraries, books, performing arts, music, film or video and bullfighting matters.

The third block, dedicated to summary statistics, includes the results of the Culture Satellite Account, which tries to estimate the global impact of culture on the entire national economy, offering indicators on its contribution to the Spanish GDP.

According to this yearbook, the volume of cultural employment reached 515,000 people in 2015, 2.9% of total employment in Spain in the average for the annual period, which represents an increase compared to the 511.8 thousand people employed in the cultural sector in 2014.

Cultural employment is characterized by academic training above average, presenting higher rates of higher education than those observed in the national group, 67.8% compared to 41.9%. 69.2% of cultural employment is salaried, a figure lower than that observed in the total, 82.7%, and presents full-time and part-time employment rates of 86.9% and 13.1% respectively.

Foreign trade of cultural goods

In 2015, the value of exports of goods linked to culture stood at 753.2 million euros, compared to imports of 629.4 million euros, obtaining a positive trade balance of 123.8 million euros. The most favorable behavior of foreign trade is observed, as in other years, in books and the press, with exports worth 573.7 million euros and a positive trade balance of 210.6 million.

Intellectual property rights

The amount collected by intellectual property rights management entities in 2015 amounted to 356.5 million euros, 2.2% more than in 2014. Depending on the type of entity, 73.5% of the collection is from copyright management entities, 14.7% from artists' rights management entities, and 11.8% from producers' rights entities.

On the other hand, the total amount distributed by rights during 2015 was 311.5 million euros. And the number of members of these entities rose to 184 thousand in 2015, of which 4.1% are legal entities and 95.9% are natural persons.

Cine

Regarding cinema, one of the most important cultural industries, the total number of spectators in 2015 stood at 96.1 million, with a total collection of 575.2 million euros. These figures represent year-on-year increases of 9.3% and 11% respectively.

Regarding Spanish cinema, spectators amounted to 18.6 million and the collection reached 111.7 million euros, while the foreign films exhibited throughout 2015 obtained 77.6 million spectators and a collection of 463.5 million euros.

In 2015, the number of films shown in one of the 3,588 exhibition halls distributed throughout the national territory was 1,750, of which 565, that is, 32.3%, were premieres. The Spanish films exhibited were 391 and the number of foreign films exhibited was 1,359.