New UCSB report breaks down broad economic impact of local creative economy
SOUTH CENTRAL COAST REGION, Calif. (KEYT) – A new report from UC Santa Barbara puts a numerical value on the creative economy's impact on Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
The report, created by UC Santa Barbara's Economic Forecast Project, was co-commissioned by the Economic Development Collaborative and the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture.
It was officially presented to the County Board of Supervisors on March 3, 2026.
The project estimated the economic impact of twelve sectors using employment and wage data: Architecture and Interior Design, Art Dealers, Communication Arts, Digital Media, Entertainment, Fashion, Furniture and Decorative Arts, Industrial Design Services, Publishing and Printing, Toys, Visual and Performing Arts Providers, and Fine and Performing Art Schools.
The data used in the project came from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which uses the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to create a six-digit code for each of the sectors.
According to the report, the twelve sectors that make up the local creative economy represent five percent of employment in Santa Barbara County, 11,232 jobs, which is comparable to the size of other sector's employment numbers including manufacturing (12,955 jobs) and construction (12,639 jobs).
Table 7 from the report depicts the employment share of each sector in the creative economy broken down by county.
The creative economy's size has grown from $3.46 billion to $3.82 billion since 2019, generating an estimated $1.3 billion in annual labor income and around $469 million in tax revenue noted the report.
Those calculations may undersell the impact on the local economy explained UC Santa Barbara professor of Economics Peter Rupert during a presentation of the report to the County government earlier this month, "The economic output in Santa Barbara County is a hefty number. My best guess is that this is a lower estimate."
For comparison, Santa Barbara County's largest economic sector is agriculture.
The 2024 Crop and Livestock Production Report put a gross domestic production value of all agriculture and livestock at just over $2 billion for the 2024 cycle.
That annual agriculture report only provides the estimated initial value of crops and livestock. It does not calculate the broader impact of sales nor employment on the local economy like the report about the local creative economy does, but it can be a helpful tool to gauge the size of the creative economy detailed by researchers.
An example of economic research about broader impacts for certain sectors came out earlier this year when the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County calculated the value of local natural spaces at an estimated $2.96 billion annually.
Researchers looking into the local creative economy further drilled down on the respective economic impact of each sector by categorizing them into direct, indirect, and induced impacts.
A direct impact includes initial expenditures while indirect impacts calculated a purchase made by the recipient of an initial expenditure explained the report.
An induced impact is the local spending by employees impacted by both the direct and indirect impacts.
Table 2 from the report captures what researchers found.
The report then separated the creative economy down by county impact.
"In economic development, we see a strong connection between a region's creative assets— its artistic talent and cross-sector innovation— and overall economic performance," said Bruce Stenslie, President and CEO of the Economic Development Collaborative, a commissioning agency of the report.
