Marine economic statistics 2017: corrected April 2020

Statistics on economic contributions of Scotland’s marine sectors present a time series of Gross Value Added (GVA), turnover and employment for industrial categories defined as part of the marine sector. This publication was originally published in October 2019 and was corrected in April 2020.


2. Marine Economy Overview

2.1 Marine Economic Key Points

In 2017, the Scottish marine economy generated £5.1 billion in GVA: accounting for 3.9% of the overall Scottish economy. The Scottish marine economy provided employment for 74,500 people (headcount), contributing 3.0% of the total Scottish employment.

The oil and gas services sector is the biggest contributor to the marine economy in terms of turnover and GVA. However, marine tourism employs the most people of all the sectors covered in this report. Oil and gas services provide 42% of the marine economy GVA and 24% of the employment while marine tourism provides 12% of the GVA and 38% of the employment (see Table 1 and Figure 1).

There are considerable variations in labour productivity (GVA per worker) across the marine economy, with Aquaculture having the highest GVA per worker in 2017 (£158,000), and marine tourism producing the lowest at £21,000. In 2016, freight water transport had produced the highest GVA per employee.

Oil and gas extraction is not included in these figures, although support services for oil and gas are included. This broadly aligns the figures with those provided by the onshore values in the National Accounts for Scotland.

Table 1 : Marine economic sectors - GVA, turnover, employment and GVA per head, 2017(1)
Description GVA
£M
Turnover
£M
Employment Headcount
'000s
GVA Per Head
£
Fishing 316 582 4.8 65,873
Aquaculture 354 1,087 2.2 157,697
Support for oil & gas 2,176 4,492 17.8 122,264
Processing 392 1,790 7.7 50,922
Ship building 572 1,561 7.7 74,221
Construction & water transport services 591 722 4.3 137,326
Passenger water transport 90 200 1.1 81,545
Freight water transport 45 118 0.5 90,000
Renting & leasing of water transport equipment 11 18 0.1 106,000
Marine Tourism 594 1,018 28.3 20,989
5,140 11,587 74.5 68,949

1 Figures corrected on 15th April 2020, for more information see Annex B section 17.11

Figure 1 : Scotland's marine economy - distribution of GVA, turnover and employment across sectors, 2017
Figure 1 : Scotland's marine economy - distribution of GVA, turnover and employment across sectors, 2017

Sectors ranked in order of size (GVA)
Sea and coastal freight and passenger transport and Renting and leasing of water transport equipment have been combined to make the chart more readable.

2.2 Marine Economy Trends

Between 2016 to 2017 the marine economy's GVA increased by 16% from £4.42 billion to £5.14 billion (2017 prices). Employment fell by 2%.

Table 2: Marine sector - GVA, turnover and employment, 2008 to 2017 (2017 prices)(1)
Year GVA
£M
Turnover
£M
Employment
'000s
2008* 5,332 12,237 67.9
2009* 5,192 13,613 70.6
2010* 5,167 12,623 68.5
2011 4,693 12,574 69.9
2012 5,015 12,993 69.5
2013 5,001 13,523 73.9
2014 5,069 14,216 75.0
2015 4,928 13,800 79.1
2016 4,421 10,814 76.0
2017 5,140 11,587 74.5

1 Figures corrected on 15th April 2020, for more information see Annex B section 17.11.
* SABS categories for oil and gas services changed in 2011 see Annex B section 17.7.

The longer term trend shows that between 2008 and 2017 the marine economy GVA (adjusted to 2017 prices) fell by 4% while employment increased by 10%.

Figure 2: Marine sector - GVA and employment, 2008 to 2017 (2017 prices)(1)
Figure 2: Marine sector - GVA and employment, 2008 to 2017 (2017 prices) (1)

1 Figures corrected on 15th April 2020, for more information see Annex B section 17.11

The change in GVA from 2016 to 2017 is shown in Figure 3. The figures for the marine economy by industry are shown in Table 19.

Figure 3: Marine sector - Change in GVA by sector, 2016 to 2017 (2017 prices)(1)
Figure 3: Marine sector - Change in GVA by sector, 2016 to 2017 (2017 prices) (1)

1 Figures corrected on 15th April 2020, for more information see Annex B section 17.11

2.3 Marine Economy by geography

The values presented at local authority level are mostly based on SABS data. Most values can be provided by local authority, though some become disclosive at this level and are aggregated into the 'unallocated' category. The methodology for combining values from the different sources is detailed in Annex B: Methodology and source data.

Table 3 : Marine sector - GVA, turnover and employment (headcount), by local authority, 2017
Local authority GVA
£M
Turnover
£M
Employment
000's
% of Scotland
GVA Turnover Employment
Aberdeen City 2,039 3,867 16.9 39% 34% 24%
Aberdeenshire 951 2,152 9.8 18% 19% 14%
Angus 73 86 1.1 1% 1% 1%
Argyll & Bute 135 332 5.2 3% 3% 7%
City Of Edinburgh 35 102 1.4 1% 1% 2%
Clackmannanshire 1 2 0.0 0% 0% 0%
Dumfries & Galloway 104 258 2.8 2% 2% 4%
Dundee City 16 23 0.4 0% 0% 1%
East Ayrshire * * *
East Dunbartonshire * * *
East Lothian 34 65 1.3 1% 1% 2%
East Renfrewshire * * *
Falkirk * * 0.7 1%
Fife 141 531 4.7 3% 5% 7%
Glasgow City 268 * 4.4 5% 6%
Highland 257 625 8.9 5% 5% 12%
Inverclyde 124 164 1.2 2% 1% 2%
Midlothian * * *
Moray 25 49 0.9 0% 0% 1%
Na H-Eileanan Siar 44 125 1.4 1% 1% 2%
North Ayrshire 61 104 1.5 1% 1% 2%
North Lanarkshire 13 * 0.2 0% 0%
Orkney Islands 35 68 1.3 1% 1% 2%
Perth & Kinross 3 22 0.3 0% 0% 0%
Renfrewshire 31 58 1.6 1% 1% 2%
Scottish Borders 27 6 1.2 1% 0% 2%
Shetland Islands 167 314 2.1 3% 3% 3%
South Ayrshire 42 72 1.2 1% 1% 2%
South Lanarkshire 12 * * 0%
Stirling 15 24 0.7 0% 0% 1%
West Dunbartonshire 8 17 0.3 0% 0% 0%
West Lothian 3 7 0.1 0% 0% 0%
Unallocated 477 2,514 3.1 9% 22% 4%
Scotland 5,140 11,587 74.5 100% 100% 100%

* = disclosive data
1 Figures corrected on 15th April 2020, for more information see Annex B section 17.11

Figure 4: Marine sector - distribution of employment and GVA by local authority, 2017
Figure 4: Marine sector - distribution of employment and GVA by local authority, 2017

Scottish Government (Marine Scotland) 2019
Contains National Statistics data ©
Crown copyright and database right

Aberdeen City accounted for over £2 billion (40%) of the marine economy's GVA for 2017, with Aberdeenshire the next highest with £951 million (19%). Glasgow City and Highland both contributed 5% of the marine GVA in 2017, while Highland contributed 12% of the employment and Glasgow City contributed 6%.

The biggest change in GVA from 2016 to 2017 was in the City of Glasgow which reported a negative GVA for 2016, but increased to £268 million in 2017. This is likely to be due to the spasmodic nature of ship building and maintenance, and reflects the dominance of the industry in Glasgow's marine economy. This is discussed in more detail in the Shipbuilding chapter.

Contact

Email: Venetia.Haynes@gov.scot

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