Specially created statistics about the arts and culture sector show its impact on the US economy

In March, the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released a partially interactive report, Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, U.S. and States, 2020, showing that arts and cultural economic activity, adjusted for inflation, decreased 6.4 percent in 2020 after increasing 3.4 percent in 2019, indicating the marked impact that COVID-19 had on this sector in 2020. This report was just one output of the BEA product known as a “satellite” account, created thanks to the BEA’s mission to provide Americans with a better understanding of the ever-evolving US economy. Satellite accounts focus on special topics such as outdoor recreation, healthcare, travel and tourism, or arts and culture. They provide supplementary statistics that allow in-depth analysis of those areas that aren’t easily seen within BEA’s core statistics (such as gross domestic product and industry data). The Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA) is produced through a partnership between the BEA and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The study, Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, United States, 1998-2020 (ICPSR 36357), distributed by the National Archive of Data on Arts & Culture (NADAC), provides annual statistics from the ACPSA for the years 1998 to 2020 about the following items: (1) output of detailed arts and cultural commodities and the industries producing these commodities; (2) employment and compensation within these industries; (3) arts and cultural value added by industry; and (4) commodity-flow details for arts and cultural production products. Statistics are provided for both core arts and cultural production and supporting arts and cultural production. For the years 2001-2020, a state-level value added and employment data table is included. It contains value added by industry by state, estimates for each state annually of employment and compensation by industry, and comparisons with ACPSA employment and compensation by industry the same year. It also includes the annual total of employment in each state across the arts and cultural commodities industries. An interactive map containing these data for each state can be found here.