Commerce international

UNCTAD estimated that global exports of creative services reached a record of $1.7 trillion in 2024 – more than twice the value of $709 billion recorded for the exports of creative goods. While creative services exports grew by 12% year-on-year, exports of creative goods remained almost unchanged in 2024. Creative services already represent significant share of total trade in services, accounting for 20% in 2024, whereas creative goods made up 3% of total merchandise trade.

Over the past decade, trade in creative services has consistently outperformed trade in creative goods in terms of export value. While creative goods exports showed only modest growth between 2010 and 2024, creative services exports followed a strong upward trajectory, more than doubling in value over that period. This trend underscores the rapidly growing demand for creative services, including for software, research and development, and digital content and media.

Creative services exports are concentrated among few economies, mainly developed economies. In 2024, the ten largest exporters accounted for 73% of global creative services exports. Ireland remained the world’s leading exporter in the creative economy, generating $332 billion in creative services exports and capturing 19% of the global market. The United States of America followed with exports of $294 billion, trailed by United Kingdom ($108 billion), India ($102 billion) and Germany ($96 billion).

In recent years, some developing economies, particularly India, Singapore, and China, have become important exporters of creative services. Among the top five creative services exporters from the developing world, all except Brazil were from Asia, jointly capturing 16% of the global market in 2024. While developed economies continue dominating the global market in creative services, the growing market shares of developing economies highlights their growing albeit uneven participation in that market.

Global creative goods exports remained highly concentrated geographically in 2024, with the top ten exporters accounting for 67% of the market, a large proportion of which originated from developing economies. China maintained its outstanding lead, recording creative goods exports of $217 billion, despite a 5% decline compared to the previous year. Developed economies, such as the United States of America ($47 billion), Italy ($43 billion), France ($41 billion), followed on the second to fourth ranks.