DCMS Research report: heritage sector statistics methodology

This article was first published by DCMS.

The Department of Culture Media & Sport commissioned Alma Economics to carry out a feasibility study of different approaches to produce a single reliable estimate of the economic contribution of heritage organisations to the UK economy. The study looked at 4 approaches:

  • Dynamic mapping
  • ‘SIC-SOC’ mapping
  • Satellite accounts
  • ‘big data’

Based on the study ‘SIC-SOC’ (which maps heritage occupations (SOC codes) to their corresponding industry codes (SIC)) emerged as the best of the four approaches in the short term. Alongside expanding the list of heritage industries and occupations, and incorporating additional data on heritage activities and outputs. DCMS (overview), DCMS (research analysis)