The report, the second for the San Diego region, is commissioned by the City of San Diego and the San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center offering insights in San Diego’s creative industries while highlighting trends in its comparative health regionwide.
The Creative economy plays a crucial role in San Diego's economy while fostering our region's ability to engage in creative problem-solving, drive innovation, and promote an inclusive society. San Diegans benefit from the information, knowledge, ideas, and creativity happening around us. In this Creative Economy in the San Diego Region report, we describe San Diego’s creative industries and occupations and recommend ways policymakers, educators, funders, and nonprofits can help advance San Diego’s creative economy and support San Diegans working and doing business in the creative sectors.
At $10.8 billion dollars, the creative industries supported economic activity equivalent to 3.7% of the county’s gross regional product (GRP) in 2022—supporting total jobs across the county economy of almost 170,000, including 82,467 direct creative economy jobs, and nearly 87,000 indirect jobs.
The creative economy as a proportion of San Diego’s regional economy has been steadily shrinking over the past ten years, hitting its lowest point in 2021 at 3.51% of GRP before bouncing back to 2019 levels in 2022.
Of the thirteen industry groups studied, Digital Media contributed the largest to San Diego’s total GRP, while the Printing and Publishing sector suffered job losses. The number of creative firms in the region has not bounced back after the pandemic, with 6,179 firms in 2022 compared to 7,386 firms in 2019.
In San Diego, average annual earnings in the creative economy rose across all creative industries between 2012 and 2022 (averaging from $46,808 to $64,663). However, the creative economy is variable across creative industries. Employment in creative economy industry groups includes both high-earning creatives working in Digital Media ($156,497) and Communication Arts ($97,351), as well as lower-earning creatives working in Visual & Performing Arts ($28,594) and Fine and Performing Arts Schools ($22,475).
58% of workers in creative industries are White, and 55% are men, compared to a county population of 43% White and 50% men. While underrepresented, over the past ten years, the percentage of creative workers who are Black, Hispanic, and Asian has been increasing substantially. Still, survey respondents expressed equity issues in the creative economy.
Over 80% of creative businesses are small businesses with less than 20 employees, and almost all are for-profit, with 97.7% of the creative economy in San Diego being for-profit, while 2.3% is nonprofit. Self-employment jobs in the creative industries have grown by 25% over the past ten years, compared to 5% for employment jobs, indicating a lack of stable employment.
The City of San Diego advances and drives an equitable and inclusive creative economy and cultural ecosystem by investing in the work of artists and creatives and institutions and systems that amplify creative work and experiences. To learn more, visit sandiego.gov/arts- culture.
The report is funded in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency.