Liubov Maidanyk, Deputy Director of the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (UANIPIO/Ukrainian IP Office), Chair of the UANIPIO Appeals Commission
What do the song playing through your headphones, the TV series everyone is talking about, a viral advertising campaign and a Ukrainian IT product used around the world have in common? The answer is, all of these are examples of creative industries.
For many years, the role of the creative industries in Ukraine was assessed largely intuitively. We knew they mattered, but we lacked reliable evidence of the scale of their economic contribution. The first comprehensive study of the contribution of IP-intensive industries to Ukraine’s economy finally provides that evidence. It demonstrates that the development of the creative industries is not only a matter of culture but also one of the key drivers of Ukraine’s economic recovery.
As in Europe and Around the World
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), across different countries worldwide, the creative economy contributes to between 0.5% and 7.3% of GDP, as well as employs between 0.5% to 12.5% of the workforce. At the same time, estimates by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) show that, in the European Union, copyright-based IPR-intensive industries generate an average of 7.2% of GDP and 6.3% of total employment. Until recently, however, Ukraine lacked a comprehensive assessment of the economic contribution of these industries.
This is why the publication of Ukraine’s first field-specific study represents an important milestone not only for the intellectual property community but also for evidence-based policymaking. The analytical report, "Assessment of the economic contribution of industries to Ukraine’s economy through the lens of intellectual property," prepared by the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (UANIPIO/Ukrainian IP Office) in cooperation with researchers from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, provides a methodology for measuring the contribution of intellectual property to value added, employment and the country’s economic development.
Research Methodology
The analysis covers the data for 2019–2024, capturing three distinct stages of Ukraine’s economic development: the pre-crisis period, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the period of the full-scale war.
The study’s methodology is based on the approaches developed by the EUIPO and the EPO, while being adapted to Ukraine’s institutional framework and statistical system. In particular, the assessment of copyright-based industries relies on the list of economic activities classified as creative industries under the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine no. 265-р.
At the same time, technological and societal developments point to the need to expand this list. For example, the activities of bloggers and influencers — commonly associated with the concept of ‘new media’ — can also be considered part of copyright-based creative industries. Accordingly, the list of relevant economic activities could be expanded to include sectors such as the provision of other information services, auxiliary educational services and online retail trade.
Key Findings
The study shows that Ukraine’s creative industries have demonstrated remarkable resilience despite the challenges of the full-scale war, although their role within the national economy has changed significantly. In 2019, copyright-based industries accounted for 3.33% of GDP and 2.19% of total employment. Following the onset of the full-scale invasion, however, their contribution to GDP nearly halved, falling to 1.67% in 2022. Employment, by contrast, remained relatively stable at 2.01%, indicating a strong commitment to preserving human capital despite a sharp decline in financial performance.
During 2023–2024, the sector entered a phase of adaptation and gradual recovery. By 2024, the share of employment generated by the creative industries had risen to 2.27% — the highest level recorded during the entire observation period — while their contribution to GDP increased to 1.95%. These trends suggest that the creative industries are playing an increasingly important social as well as economic role, sustaining employment even when the recovery of value added has been more gradual.
The most significant shift was observed in the share of value added generated by the creative industries. Between 2022 and 2023, this indicator increased sharply, reaching a peak of 4.45%. This wartime surge reflects the high adaptability of industries based on digital technologies and intellectual property, which proved less vulnerable to the destruction of physical infrastructure than many traditional sectors.
In 2024, however, the indicator declined to 2.81%. This may signal the gradual stabilisation of the economic structure and the recovery of other sectors of the economy, resulting in the creative industries’ share returning to levels broadly comparable with the pre-pandemic period.
An IT-Led, Highly Concentrated Model
One of the most notable trends identified by the study is the rapid transformation of Ukraine’s creative economy into a highly concentrated model, with the IT sector emerging as its principal driver.
Measured by the contribution of copyright-based activities to value added, computer programming has consistently remained the leading industry. Its share increased from 50.0% in 2019 to 64.7% in 2024, highlighting the IT sector’s resilience, export orientation, and ability to operate effectively despite wartime conditions.
By contrast, the relative contribution of most other creative industries has gradually declined. For example, the share of motion picture production fell from 4.2% to 1.7%, while television broadcasting decreased from 7.4% to 4.5% over the same period.
As a result, more than 70% of the total value added generated by Ukraine’s creative industries now comes from just two sectors: computer programming and advertising agencies. This concentration illustrates both the remarkable strength of the digital economy and the growing structural imbalance within the country's creative industries.
Growth Potential
The scale of Ukraine’s creative industries remains significantly smaller than that of the European Union. In 2024, copyright-based industries accounted for 1.95% of Ukraine’s GDP and 2.27% of total employment, compared with the EU average of 6.9% of GDP and 6.2% of employment.
This gap cannot be attributed to the war alone. For decades, European countries have invested in developing copyright markets, content commercialisation mechanisms, collective rights management systems and support instruments for creative businesses. In Ukraine, these ecosystems are still evolving, while the full-scale invasion has further complicated the sector’s development.
At the same time, this gap also represents considerable growth potential. International experience demonstrates that the creative industries are not a peripheral part of the economy but one of its most productive and dynamic sectors. They generate high value added, strengthen export capacity, create high-quality jobs and increasingly shape national competitiveness. This is why fostering copyright-based industries has grown to be not only a cultural objective anymore, but also a critical component of sustainable economic development.
* Figures are based on the analytical report «Assessment of the economic contribution of industries to Ukraine’s economy through the lens of intellectual property».
