Scotland's marine economic statistics 2016

The publication presents economic statistics for industrial categories defined as part of the marine sector.


2. Marine Economy Overview

2.1 Introduction

This report presents a time series of GVA, turnover and employment for industrial categories defined as part of the marine sector. The data is provided for 2008 to 2016.

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.

The categories included in this analysis are detailed in Annex A. Summary data tables are included in the commentary, while more detailed supporting data tables are contained in the Tables Section on page 52.

2.2 Marine Economic Key Points

In 2016 the Scottish marine economy generated £3.8 billion GVA: accounting for 2.9 % of the overall Scottish economy. In terms of employment, the Scottish marine economy provided employment for a headcount of 75,300 people, contributing 2.9 % 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 for the most number of people in all the sectors. Oil and gas services provide 55 % of the marine economy GVA and 26 % of the employment while marine tourism provides 10 % of the GVA and 37 % of the employment (see Table 2 and Figure 1).

This indicates there are considerable variations in labour productivity (GVA per worker) across the marine economy, with freight water transport producing the highest GVA per worker in 2016 (£130,000), and marine tourism producing the lowest at just under £20,000.

Table 2 : Marine economic sectors – GVA, turnover, employment and GVA per head, 2016

Description GVA £M Turnover £M Employment Headcount 000’s GVA Per Head £
Fishing* 296 571 4.8 61,344
Aquaculture* 216 797 2.3 94,850
Support for oil & gas 1,631 4,483 19.7 82,802
Processing 391 1,602 7.6 51,395
Ship building 202 1,001 7.0 28,829
Construction and water transport services 422 672 4.0 105,600
Passenger water transport 63 168 1.4 45,286
Freight water transport 65 178 0.5 130,400
Renting and leasing of water transport equipment 8 14 0.1 82,000
Marine Tourism 554 1,031 27.9 19,864
Total 3,849 10,517 75.3 51,114

* Fishing and aquaculture figures were not sourced from SABS statistics.

Figure 1 : Scotland’s marine economy - distribution of GVA, turnover and employment across sectors, 2016

Figure 1 : Scotland’s marine economy - distribution of GVA, turnover and employment across sectors, 2016

Sectors ranked in order of GVA contribution

Sea and coastal freight and passenger transport and Renting and leasing of water transport equipment have been combined to make the chart more readable.

2.3 Marine Economy Trends

Between 2015 to 2016 the marine sector GVA fell by 20% from £4.83 billion to £3.85 billion. Employment fell by 5%.

Table 3: Marine sector - GVA, turnover and employment, 2008 to 2016 (2016 prices)

Year GVA £M Turnover £M Employment Headcount 000's GVA Per Worker £
2008* 5,225 11,992 67.9 76,989
2009* 5,088 13,340 70.6 72,101
2010* 5,063 12,370 68.5 73,872
2011 4,599 12,322 69.9 65,789
2012 4,915 12,733 69.5 70,669
2013 4,901 13,253 73.9 66,359
2014 4,967 13,931 75.0 66,199
2015 4,830 13,524 79.1 61,059
2016 3,849 10,517 75.3 51,114

The longer term trend shows that between 2008 and 2016 the marine economy GVA (adjusted to 2016 prices) fell by 26% while employment increased by 11% (over 7,000 workers). This has had the effect of reducing the GVA per person from £77,000 to £51,000. The individual sectors driving these trends will be explored in subsequent chapters.

Figure 2: Marine sector - GVA and employment, 2008 to 2016 (2016 prices)

Figure 2: Marine sector - GVA and employment, 2008 to 2016 (2016 prices)

The detailed breakdown of the marine economy by industry is shown in Table 19 on page 52.

2.4 Marine Economy by geography

The values presented at local authority level are mostly based on SABS data. Marine Scotland specific analysis was used to estimate the geographic breakdowns for fishing and aquaculture sectors. The methodology for substituting the Marine Scotland fishing and aquaculture values is detailed in Annex B. Most marine economic totals can be provided by local authority, though some become disclosive at this level and are aggregated into the ‘unallocated’ category.

Table 4 : Marine sector - GVA, turnover and employment (headcount), by local authority, 2016

    % of Scotland's marine economy
  GVA £M Turnover £M Employment 000's GVA £M Turnover £M Employment 000's
Aberdeen City 1,591 3,869 18.30 41% 37% 24%
Aberdeenshire 706 2,055 10.89 18% 20% 14%
Angus 64 106 0.91 2% 1% 1%
Argyll & Bute 147 369 5.36 4% 4% 7%
Clackmannanshire 0 2 0.00 0% 0% 0%
Dumfries & Galloway 107 285 2.64 3% 3% 3%
Dundee City 12 23 0.40 0% 0% 1%
East Ayrshire * * * 0% 0% 0%
East Dunbartonshire * * * 0% 0% 0%
East Lothian 25 52 1.21 1% 0% 2%
East Renfrewshire 1 2 0.00 0% 0% 0%
Edinburgh, City Of 43 114 1.50 1% 1% 2%
Falkirk * * 0.70 0% 0% 1%
Fife 137 524 4.71 4% 5% 6%
Glasgow, City Of -6 * 3.60 0% 0% 5%
Highland 263 693 8.83 7% 7% 12%
Inverclyde 87 148 1.50 2% 1% 2%
Midlothian * * * 0% 0% 0%
Moray 26 68 0.93 1% 1% 1%
Na H-Eileanan Siar 38 147 1.43 1% 1% 2%
North Ayrshire 50 105 1.80 1% 1% 2%
North Lanarkshire 13 34 0.20 0% 0% 0%
Orkney Islands 66 196 1.34 2% 2% 2%
Perth & Kinross 8 24 0.40 0% 0% 1%
Renfrewshire 31 56 1.60 1% 1% 2%
Scottish Borders 34 1 1.11 1% 0% 1%
Shetland Islands 194 447 2.63 5% 4% 3%
South Ayrshire 35 64 1.12 1% 1% 1%
South Lanarkshire 9 * * 0% 0% 0%
Stirling 18 32 0.60 0% 0% 1%
West Dunbartonshire 5 11 0.20 0% 0% 0%
West Lothian 2 6 0.10 0% 0% 0%
Unallocated 144 1,085 1.28 4% 10% 2%
Scotland 3,849 10,517 75 100% 100% 100%

* = disclosive data

Figure 3: Marine sector – distribution of employment and GVA by local authority, 2016

Figure 3: Marine sector – distribution of employment and GVA by local authority, 2016

Scottish Government (Marine Scotland) 2018
Contains National Statistics data ©
Crown copyright and database right

Aberdeen City accounted for 41% of the marine economy GVA for 2016, with Aberdeenshire the next highest with 18%. The City of Glasgow reported a negative GVA for 2016. 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 sector. This is discussed in more detail in the section on Shipbuilding.

Employment was more evenly spread across Scotland, with Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire contributing 24% and 14% respectively.

Contact

Kirsty.Bosley@gov.scot

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