Cultural industries slowly recovered from the pandemic in 2021

According to a press release from the FSO, value added in the cultural industries once again exceeded the CHF 15 billion mark, but did not reach the pre-corona level. These are some of the new results from the Federal Statistical Office's (FSO) statistics on the cultural industries.

In 2021, the cultural sector recorded 1426 more companies than in 2020 (up 2.2%), with a total of 65,369 cultural enterprises. This figure is even higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic and represents a new high since 2011. The increase in the cultural sector (plus 2.2%) was therefore significantly higher than in the economy as a whole (plus 1.5%). It was most pronounced in the audio-visual and multimedia, visual arts and advertising sectors, weaker in architecture and even negative in books and press (minus 1.5%).

By contrast, the number of employees in the cultural sector rose less sharply in 2021 than in the economy as a whole. The upturn mainly affected small structures. The proportion of small cultural enterprises (fewer than 3 employees) was not only higher in 2021 than in 2020, but was even higher than in 2019.