Clustering Creative Industries in Europe

Since 90's, when creative industries first became point of interest of economists in the USA, almost 20 years passed away. The interest in the topic has continuously risen up in Europe as well, especially in recent years. Even though there are strategic documents and programs adopted on the EU level, creative industries in European countries vary a lot. This difference applies to both - the economic performance of the creative industries as well as program support basis. Goal of presented paper is to describe this variety and the process of changes since 2010, when the Green Paper on Unlocking the Potential of Creative Industries was adopted. Using cluster analysis, we divided EU countries into clusters according to selected macroeconomic indicators - gross value added, total revenue, number of enterprises in the sectors and total employment in the sectors. Clusters offer picture about current status of creative industries in European area and create background for future policy making and financing of European creative economy.