The importance of marine industry markets to national economies

There have been few attempts to measure the markets for marine industries and their economic importance to nations. One of the problems is that of definition - what precisely constitutes a marine industry? The authors hope that their segmentation of the markets may be of use to researchers in other countries. This paper presents a case study, being the results of research carried out by the authors on the UK economy in 1996 using 1994 statistics. This shows that although the marine industries are not independent of each other, the summed total of turnovers are of the order of £46 billion (US$74bn). Jobs created, both direct and indirect are calculated at 782,000 (or 3.6% of total UK employment). The value added to the economy is estimated at £27.5 billion (US$44bn), that is 4.7% of UK GDP. Identified exports exceed £12 billion (US$19bn) which equates to 9% of UK exports. Five markets account for 94% of the summed turnover of the UK marine Industries. These are oil and gas, leisure, shipping, defence, fish, insurance, submarine telecoms. Marine related activity of government departments totals some £6.1 billion (US$9.8bn), that is 13% of the above, and generates over 83,000 jobs. The GDP of the UK marine industries are 68% greater than the electricity, gas and water supply industries (£15.4 bn) 55% greater than the manufacture of food and beverages (GDP £16.7 bn) nearly twice that of the financial companies and institutions (GDP £13.2 bn)