Scotland's Marine Economic Statistics 2023
Statistics on the economic contributions of Scotland’s marine sectors. Includes a time series of approximate Gross Value Added (aGVA), turnover and employment for industrial categories defined as part of the marine sector.
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The Marine Directorate has been investigating how to measure offshore wind farm economic activity. This is under development, so it is not included in the marine economy figures. Employment and turnover estimates for offshore wind come from the Office for National Statistic’s Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy Survey. This collects economic information on Low Carbon and Renewable Energy sectors, including offshore wind. The accuracy of these estimates varies by sectors and country. This limits the use of the data for some small sectors and at a Scotland level. More information on this, including confidence intervals, can be found in the Low carbon and renewable energy economy, UK: 2023 bulletin.
Unfortunately, we are still unable to calculate aGVA estimates. But, we have estimated employment headcounts from the full time equivalent estimates. The annual population survey was used to work out the proportion of full time workers in Scotland. The annual survey of hours and earnings was used to estimate the average hours worked by full and part time staff.
Scottish offshore wind directly employed an estimated 4,400 people in 2023. It generated 6,389GWh of electricity, 19% of all renewable energy generation in Scotland. Scottish offshore wind had an estimated turnover of £2.6 billion in 2023, 0.9% of overall Scottish turnover.
From 2022 to 2023, the Scottish offshore wind farm turnover decreased by 24%. But, between 2014 to 2023, the turnover increased by 2024%. Due to the high level of uncertainty in these estimates only the increase between 2014 and 2023 is statistically significant.
The estimated number of people employed increased by 389% between 2014 and 2023. This increase is statistically significant. See Data and Methodology for more information.
Other marine economic sectors
The information provided in this report is based on available, validated economic data sources. As relevant data on other marine economy sectors become available we will add them to this report.
Recreational sea angling is not included separately in this publication. But may be covered within other sectors, such as marine tourism or renting and leasing of water equipment.
Marine renewable energy (wind, wave and tidal) has continued to grow in Scotland. We are still working on calculating aGVA for offshore wind and sourcing economic information for wave and tidal energy.
Seaweed harvesting is a potential addition to future reports, when data and appropriate methods have been developed.