The landmark study “Cultural heritage counts for Europe” (2015), undertaken within the framework of a project funded by the EU Culture programme (2007-2013) has been widely recognised as a key study on the societal impact of cultural heritage. Despite the large body of evidence it assembled, it also pointed out in its strategic recommendations that there is still a continuing need to “identify, define and categorise heritage impact indicators”. 

The European Year of Cultural Heritage (2018) was a decisive moment in terms of various high level EU initiatives being brought forward, concerning the action needed to better understand the societal impact of cultural heritage. From the policy perspective, this need has been expressed on multiple occasions in the past already, for instance, the Council conclusions of 21 May 2014 on cultural heritage as a strategic resource for a sustainable Europe (2014/C 183/08), invited the Commission to pursue the analysis of the economic and social impact of cultural heritage in the EU. Thus, by now a very solid strategic framework has been set up by the European Commission which facilitates the ongoing efforts to better understand the contribution of cultural heritage and related policies to wider (territorial) socioeconomic development.

In the meantime, Eurostat is continuously improving availability of statistical data on culture, based on the EU framework on culture statistics. There are no specific collections of data pertaining to culture and the contribution of culture to the economy, thus other data collections are used to derive the information, for instance, on cultural employment, trade in cultural goods or cultural participation. Lately, Eurostat has been working on the revision of the official classification of the economic activities in the EU NACE Rev 2.1 classification (in force from 2025 onwards), with an extended coverage of cultural activities and a new structure for the existing ones.

The ESPON Programme has conducted two significant research studies on the societal influence of cultural heritage, both of which are referenced in the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage. 

The ESPON targeted analysis project, titled "The Material Cultural Heritage as a Strategic Territorial Development Resource: Mapping Impacts Through a Set of Common European Socio-economic Indicators (ESPON HERITAGE)" (2018–2019), focused on establishing a common theoretical framework to quantify the economic impact of material cultural heritage. This covered 11 European countries and included sectors/areas such as archaeology, architecture, museums, libraries and archives, tourism, construction, real estate, ICT, and insurance. 

The pan-European ESPON Applied Research project, "Cultural Heritage as a Source of Societal Wellbeing in European Regions (ESPON HERIWELL)" (2020–2022), concentrated on understanding how the presence of cultural assets and associated EU investments contributes to overall societal well-being and enhances territorial cohesion across European regions. Among many outcomes, it ran a unique population survey (around 8 000 respondents) in 8 European countries on people's perception on how cultural heritage influences quality of life with special attention to impacts of Covid-19. In addition, the ESPON Programme supported a spinoff project in Iceland, to investigate societal impact of cultural heritage via a dedicated survey. 

Both studies present a wealth of empirical data, methodological innovations, and diverse research outcomes conveyed through numerous reports, visual presentations, tables, and maps. Efforts have been made to make the research outcomes more operational and accessible. Regarding the ESPON HERITAGE project, the ESPON EGTC prepared a working paper titled "Measuring economic impact of cultural heritage at territorial level" condensing the main research outcomes. Similar initiatives have been undertaken at the country level to contextualize the most crucial ESPON HERITAGE findings for national-level policymakers, such as in Flanders (Belgium), Sweden, and Austria. 

During the ESPON 2030 knowledge development event “The material cultural heritage: operationalisation of diverse research outcomes for policy makers” in June 2023, a wide discussion unfolded on the immediate priorities in terms of gathering meaningful cultural heritage statistics, based on the outcomes of the ESPON projects and the data collection efforts of the past two decades. A prevailing opinion was that establishing a material cultural heritage satellite account would be the best way to proceed in terms of research activities due to the following reasoning:

• The satellite account would allow to acquire an accurate picture of the contribution of cultural heritage to the economy and could become a viable alternative to proxy estimations which are considered less reliable. From a long-term perspective, a satellite account is the best tool which would resonate with national statistical institutes and could pave the way for robust and standardized data collection instead of relying on estimations and approximations, subject to constant questioning. 
• The satellite account would be a further expansion and detailing, as well as standardisation, of the conceptual framework developed in the ESPON HERITAGE project.
• The Eurostat expert group on culture statistics represents all the EU Member States, several of which have developed satellite accounts in the cultural field. The project could be an opportunity to assess and improve the harmonisation at EU level, similarly as in the case of Tourism Satellite Accounts in Europe. The EHHF is also very supportive of the idea.
• A material cultural heritage satellite account would also allow to integrate territorial dimension of cultural heritage statistics since material cultural heritage is territorially-bound. A material cultural heritage satellite account would position heritage inside the accounting system of national wealth, thereby contributing to the visibility of heritage as an important contributor to economic development and facilitating the use of statistics in policy making.

A Satellite account is by no means any novelty in terms of (official) statistics production and analysis. The drafting of SA is not new and is becoming more and more mainstream within the national accounts system, as a means to highlight sectors or activities which are not readily visible in the current system as well as to complement the System of National Accounts (SNA) with new statistics. An international inventory carried out by the UN (2019) found a widespread application among countries and largely satellite accounts may be grouped into two broad categories:

• Thematic accounts. These satellite accounts do not fundamentally change the underlying concepts of the core System of National Accounts but provide an expanded perspective on a particular sector, group of products or activity. Typical examples are satellite accounts for education and training, health, tourism, transport, aviation, sport etc.
• Extended national accounts. Primarily rely on concepts that extend or expand the concepts and boundaries of the SNA. Typical examples are household satellite account and ecosystem satellite account.

Some notable examples exist on the satellite account for culture in Europe – in Finland,  Spain , Portugal and the Netherlands, also the UNESCO has been working on developing international recommendations for compiling Culture Satellite Accounts (CSA). A common feature of culture satellite accounts is blending together culture and creative industries with material and intangible cultural heritage which in practical terms means that contribution of material cultural heritage to economy is, firstly, masked under the “culture” label, secondly, not comprehensively detailed. Consequently, culture satellite accounts do not give a proper understanding of the real contribution and importance of material cultural heritage to the economy. As a result, there is a need to conduct a separate activity on establishing material cultural heritage satellite account first in order to understand the true impact of material cultural heritage; at a later stage, this can be incorporated in a CSA.

The objective of the study is thus to deliver a methodological framework on developing a material cultural heritage satellite account for Europe. The contracted service provider shall develop a comprehensive framework with accompanying technical descriptions which go beyond theoretical conceptualization and outline in detail which and how the data should be gathered. Overall, the goal is to end the data disparity that is currently into place, and to establish a streamlined system of material cultural heritage statistics that provides clarity, standardization, longevity and allows for comparability across European countries/regions. The ESPON EGTC intends to submit the developed material cultural heritage satellite account methodology to Eurostat for endorsement and further action among national statistical institutes. Such an ambitious goal requires that the methodology is as robust and technical as possible, so it could be considered as a practical guide for national statistical institutes, potentially triggering new high quality data collection in the near future. In addition, the EGTC also intends to submit the developed methodology to the European Heritage Heads Forums’ (EHHF) Task Force on Economy and Statistics with an expectation that the Heads would facilitate its promotion among cultural heritage professionals. 

Expected results

The main outputs of the service will be:

• A report detailing the methodology of the material cultural heritage satellite account
• A stakeholder consultation (with National Statistical Institutes, Eurostat, etc.) to validate the proposed methodology on material cultural heritage satellite account
• Data and interactive maps and graphs which will be showcased in the ESPON Portal

More information

Contractor: TECNALIA Research & Innovation (ES)

Joint Partners: University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)

Contact: 

Zintis Hermansons (Research and Policy Manager), 

Ramona Tanasa ( Financial Reporting Manager)