Scotland's marine economic statistics 2018

1. Introduction

This report presents statistics on the size (Gross Value Added^[1] and turnover) and employment of Scotland's marine activities (hereafter collectively referred to as the marine economy). It is the third year of this report, which remains classed as experimental statistics until the content and methodology are fully established. The 2017 Aquaculture data has been updated as a result of additional 2017 survey returns that were received with the 2018 returns. See Annex B section 17.6 for more details.

The marine economy is defined as economic activity linked to the oceans, seas, bays, estuaries and other major water bodies, and the ecological and physical systems associated with them.

All of the economic data presented relates to the direct contributions of relevant activities to Scotland's economy and does not include activities of related supply chains.  

The majority of the economic information in the report is based on Scottish Annual Business Statistics (SABS)^[2]. The data are sourced from the Annual Business Survey (ABS) conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and allows detailed analysis of the structure and performance of businesses in Scotland over the period 2009 to 2018. 

Information for most of the marine economic sectors is extracted from SABS using selected Standard Industrial Categories (SIC). The abbreviated names shown below have been used as shorthand for the full SIC codes which are shown in Annex A – SABS SIC Codes.  

• Commercial fishing
• Aquaculture
• Oil & gas support services
• Seafood processing
• Ship building
• Construction and water transport services
• Passenger water transport
• Freight water transport
• Renting & leasing
• Marine Tourism

Economic data for aquaculture is sourced from Marine Scotland aquaculture statistics and business level data collected to meet the European Commission's Data Collection Framework requirements (DCF)^[3]. Economic data for sea fisheries is sourced from the Economics of the UK Fishing Fleet 2018^[4] published by Seafish and from Marine Scotland Sea Fisheries Statistics.  

The sources and methods used in the report are set out in Annex B: Methodology and source data.

Other sectors that also contribute to the Scottish economy that are not covered by these statistics are discussed in Section 12 of this report. Work is ongoing to develop methods for covering the sectors in future reports.

1.1 Values in this publication

The economic values provided for each industry are:

Gross Value Added (GVA) - this represents the amount that individual businesses, industries or sectors contribute to the economy. It is the value generated by any unit engaged in the production of goods and services less any intermediate inputs into the production process. 

Turnover - defined as total sales and work done. This is calculated by adding together the values of:

• sales of goods produced
• goods purchased and resold without further processing
• work done and industrial services rendered
• non-industrial services rendered.

Employment - a point in time estimate of the number of full and part time employees on the payroll plus the number of working proprietors employed on a set day. Total Employment is a head count and not a Full Time Equivalent (FTE) measure. This distinction is particularly important when comparing sectors which have high levels of part time employment (e.g. Marine Tourism).

The GVA per person is also estimated by dividing the industry GVA by the employment headcount.  

Each section of the report presents:

• The industry sector in a national context;
• A time series of turnover, GVA and employment;
• Supporting information about each sector, where it is relevant and available; and, 
• A geographic breakdown, where it is available and non-disclosive.  

To provide the national context, GVA and employment values are considered as a proportion of the Scotland total: 

• the Scottish GVA, taken from the National Accounts Scotland  
• Scottish employment, taken from the Annual Population Survey 

To prevent repetition of notes beneath each table, generic notes are presented in the Annex B: Methodology and source data. Specific points about individual tables are noted as they arise in the report.  

Throughout the report, prices are shown adjusted to 2018 prices.

The statistics are also published in spreadsheet format for further analysis and as a summary topic sheet presenting a high level summary of the latest single year of marine economic data.  

1.2 Reference dates

The latest year of data in this economic statistics publication is for 2018. Time series are presented for ten years, 2009 to 2018. SIC codes changed in 2007, so data before 2008 is not comparable with this series. SABS figures for 2018 were released in June 2020.    

To enable meaningful comparison of monetary values over time, all values have been adjusted to 2018 prices. Links to the ONS deflation tables used for these calculations are given in Annex B. 

Web links to other relevant online information are provided in the References section and explanations of the terms used are presented in the References and Glossary section.