Refining How We Measure the Economic Contribution of the Heritage Sector

In 2025, DCMS partnered with Historic England to address the critical issue of how can we better measure the extent of the heritage sector using standard statistical data sources.

By Devansh Mahajan, Economic Analyst and Adala Leeson, Head of Social and Economic Research

Part of the Heritage Counts series. 6 min read.

Heritage is all around us – embedded in property markets, public spaces and within communities. The rich and diverse nature of the heritage sector means it is challenging to quantify the scale and scope of the sector using orthodox metrics and statistics such as the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. This system is used by the government to measure the extent and value of sectors. The current proxy used to estimate the extent of the heritage sector produced by DCMS, relies on a single SIC code (91.03 – Operation of historical sites and buildings). This limited view of the role of the built historic environment is widely seen as significantly underestimating the sector’s true contribution to the economy.

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Building the evidence base for heritage

Efforts have been ongoing for over a decade to better measure the economic contribution of England’s heritage to the economy.

In 2014-15, Historic England (then English Heritage) commissioned a pioneering study estimating gross value added (GVA) and employment linked to heritage in the North East of England. At the time, there was no agreed framework for doing this. The study broke new ground by combining:

  • Standard industrial classification (SIC) codes, which categorise businesses by industry
  • Standard occupational classification (SOC) codes, which identify people by the work they do

This combined SIC–SOC approach demonstrated that heritage could be measured as an economic sector, even though it spans multiple industries and occupations.

Then in 2016, Historic England commissioned Trends Business Research (TBR), to develop and extend this methodology to the national level. This resulted in the SIC–SOC framework; a framework designed to align heritage activities with the industrial and occupational classifications used by the Office for National Statistics and the UK National Accounts. Since then, Historic England has commissioned annual statistical estimates published via Heritage Counts.

Applying this framework has produced estimates significantly larger than that captured in official statistics published by the DCMS [1]. This led to a need to evolve the methodology for the heritage sector’s impact and ultimately help improve decision-making around this sector. 

Before embarking on a wholesale change, DCMS commissioned a feasibility study to assess viable approaches for measuring the economic impact of the heritage sector. The Historic England led SIC–SOC framework was identified as the most robust methodology for capturing heritage within the existing statistical system.

Building on this conclusion, in 2025, Historic England and DCMS commissioned Cebr, via competitive tender, to refine and enhance the SIC-SOC methodology. The aim was to produce consistent and reliable estimates fully aligned with DCMS Sector Economic Estimates and the UK National Accounting Framework. 

This work represents a significant step forward. It will improve how heritage is represented in official evidence used across government and strengthens the case for heritage to be properly understood and considered in wider economic decision making.

How the SIC–SOC methodology works

The SIC-SOC methodology involves integrating data from multiple sources to account for both industrial (SIC) and occupational (SOC) contributions to the heritage sector. This allows us to consider industries that undertake heritage work (such as the operation of historical sites and buildings) as well as people employed in non-heritage industries who carry out heritage work, such as archivists who work in non-heritage sectors, for example, universities (DCMS, 2025).

Table 1: A simplified example of a SIC-SOC matrix (not actual data)

SOC 2472: Archivists and curators

SOC 9223: Cleaners and domestics

SIC Total

Heritage total

SIC 91.02: Museum activities

2

3

5

5

SIC 90.04 Operation of arts facilities

4

5

9

4

SIC 85.42: First-degree level higher education

NA

6

6

0

SOC Total

6

14

20

9

Standard industrial classification (SIC) codes are used to disaggregate different businesses into specific industries. Heritage work is spread across diverse industries and diverse occupations. 

A detailed analysis was undertaken to determine which SICs and SOCs can be included as part of the heritage sector’s definition. Where appropriate, SIC and SOC codes that are partly undertaking heritage – related activities – a share of those SICs and SOCs was also included based on evidence available.

Table 2: Revised heritage sector SIC codes (and their proportions)

SIC description

Proportion included

4330: Building completion and finishing

24.8%

4390: Other specialised construction activity

24.8%

91012: Archive activities

100.0%

91020: Museums activities

100.0%

91030: Operation of historical sites and buildings

100.0%

Note: ONS completed UK SIC revision (from SIC 2007 to SIC 2026) in April 2026, to be operational by 2031. This may lead to a change in the heritage sector SIC codes (and their proportions). Source: Cebr (2026)

Table 3: Revised heritage sector SOC codes (and their proportions)

SOC 2020 code

Proportion included

2115: Social and humanities scientists

16.9%

2151: Conservation professionals

100%

2451: Architects

20.5%

2453: Quantity Surveyors

20.5%

2454: Chartered Surveyors

20.5%

2472: Archivists and curators

100%

3114: Building and civil engineering technicians

20.5%

5113: Gardeners and landscape gardeners

17.4%

Source: Cebr (2026)

Comparison with previous Historic England reports

The latest heritage sector estimates (Cebr, 2026) are conceptually similar to the previous annual estimates (Cebr, 2024) however, care must be taken when comparing the 2 sources of GVA and employment estimates due to 3 key factors: 

  1. Geographic scope: the latest research covers the whole of the UK, while previous estimates focused on England only 
  2. Project scope: the previous research examined both the direct and indirect contribution of the heritage sector, while the latest research only examines the direct contribution of the heritage sector. Additionally, SIC and SOC code selection has led to differences in the scope of the heritage sector definitions
  3. Methodology: in the latest research, employment is measured as number of filled jobs, including second jobs, to retain consistency with DCMS reporting, whereas employment in the previous research was measured as number of people employed.  Additionally, the GVA methodology developed through this research aligns with DCMS’ Sector Economic Estimates GVA methodology, requiring estimates at 5-digit SIC level, which was not a requirement of the Historic England project 

In the figure below we demonstrate the latest heritage sector estimates and previous iterations from Historic England. Please note that the 2 series are not directly comparable because the new estimates are based on chain volume measure; and the older one used real terms adjustment using a fixed base year.

Figure RefMeas 1: Heritage GVA - Latest figures versus the previous estimates

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Conclusion

The new heritage sector economic estimates commissioned by DCMS and Historic England provide a more comprehensive and consistent depiction of the UK’s heritage sector. This research is an important step towards providing a more reliable, true and official estimate of the size of UK’s heritage sector.

Footnotes

[1] The 2022 DCMS Sector Economic Estimates found the sector to directly generated a gross value added (GVA) of £0.7 billion to the UK economy, while the 2024 Historic England report titled “The heritage sector in England and its impact on the economy” found that in 2022, the heritage sector generated a GVA of £15.3 billion. GVA for DCMS Sectors is available at: DCMS Sector Economic Estimates: Gross Value Added - GOV.UK