Digital activity in the Australian economy, 2021-22

This article provides an update on the size, growth and nature of digital activity in Australia for 2021-22.

Released

27/10/2023

Source

Australian National Accounts: Supply Use Tables, 2021-22 financial year

Measuring Digital Activities in the Australian Economy

Introduction

This article provides an update on digital activity in Australia in 2021-22. These experimental estimates incorporate data from the most recent 2021-22 supply-use tables, which have resulted in revisions to previously published data. For further information regarding revisions, see Improved estimates of the annual national accounts: Results of the 2023 historical revisions and Improved annual National Accounts estimates: Results of the implementation of the 2021-22 benchmarks.

The ABS measures digital activity in Australia as the production of:

Digital enabling infrastructure, such as computer hardware, software, telecommunications equipment and support services that form and facilitate the use of computer networks.
Digital media, which covers digital audio, video and advertisement broadcasting services that can be created, accessed, stored or viewed on digital devices.
E-commerce, which incorporates retail and wholesale services and margins from digitally ordered or platform enabled online transactions.

Digital activity share of the Australian economy

Digital activity has remained stable as a share of total value added between 2019-20 and 2021-22, shown in Graph 1.

Graph 1 - Digital activity value added ($m) and Share in aggregate value added (%), 2019-20 to 2021-22, Current prices
	Share of Aggregate Value Added (%)	Digital Activity Value Added ($m)
2019-20	6.3	116,755
2020-21	6.4	125,693
2021-22	6.3	136,563

Graph 1 - Digital activity value added ($m) and Share in aggregate value added (%), 2019-20 to 2021-22, Current prices

["","Share of Aggregate Value Added (%)","Digital Activity Value Added ($m)"]

[["2019-20","2020-21","2021-22"],[[6.2999999999999998],[6.4000000000000004],[6.2999999999999998]],[[116755],[125693],[136563]]]

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The value added of embedded digital activity in 2021-22 was concentrated in four main industries – Information, media and telecommunications, Professional, scientific and technical services, Wholesale trade, and Retail trade, as shown in Graph 2. Together these four industries contributed 92.1% of total digital economy value added.

Table 1 also shows the industry shares based off the previous 2022 data and the current 2023 distribution. Collection of data for E-commerce - wholesale changed in 2021-22 to better align with the definition of e-commerce used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This change resulted in an increase in the values for digital activity value added for E-commerce - wholesale from 2018-19 to 2021-22. A targeted review of businesses in the software design and software publishing industries has resulted in a shift of economic activity between industry estimates and a reallocation of digital activity between Support services and Software.

Table 1 - Industry contribution to digital activity GVA (%), 2020-21 previous and current distribution and 2021-22 current distribution, Current prices
	2020-21 Previous	2020-21 Current	2021-22 Current
J Information, Media and Telecommunications	31.0	32.2	31.1
M Professional, Scientific and Technical Services	30.6	31.2	28.8
F Wholesale Trade	19.7	19.4	21.2
G Retail Trade	10.8	9.2	11.0
C Manufacturing	3.1	3.1	3.1
E Construction	1.7	1.8	1.7
O Public Administration and Safety	1.0	1.1	0.9
S Other Services	0.9	0.9	0.9
I Transport, Postal and Warehousing	0.3	0.2	0.3
K Financial and Insurance Services	0.3	0.3	0.2
Other	0.6	0.6	0.7

Composition of digital activity in the Australian economy

Within digital activity, output was dominated by demand for Support services (39.8%), E-commerce – wholesale (22.9%) and Telecommunications (18.4%) as seen in Graph 2.

In 2021-22, the share of Support services and Software in total digital activity value added increased by 1.0% and 0.8% respectively, while the share of E-Commerce – wholesale and Telecommunications decreased by 0.9% and 0.7% respectively.

Graph 2 - Share in total digital activity value added (%), 2019-20 - 2021-22
	Hardware (%)	Software (%)	E-commerce - Retail (%)	Digital media (%)	E-commerce - Wholesale (%)	Telecommunications (%)	Support services (%)
2019-20	1.7	5	5.2	4.6	23.6	20.6	39.4
2020-21	1.6	5.4	6.8	4.6	23.8	19.1	38.8
2021-22	1.4	6.2	7.1	4.3	22.9	18.4	39.8

Graph 2 - Share in total digital activity value added (%), 2019-20 - 2021-22

["","Hardware (%)","Software (%)","E-commerce - Retail (%)","Digital media (%)","E-commerce - Wholesale (%)","Telecommunications (%)","Support services (%)"]

[["2019-20","2020-21","2021-22"],[[1.7],[1.6000000000000001],[1.3999999999999999]],[[5],[5.4000000000000004],[6.2000000000000002]],[[5.2000000000000002],[6.7999999999999998],[7.0999999999999996]],[[4.5999999999999996],[4.5999999999999996],[4.2999999999999998]],[[23.600000000000001],[23.800000000000001],[22.899999999999999]],[[20.600000000000001],[19.100000000000001],[18.399999999999999]],[[39.399999999999999],[38.799999999999997],[39.799999999999997]]]

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Digital activity growth

Digital activity increased 8.6% ($10.9 billion) in 2012-22, compared with growth of 11.7% for the total Australian economy.

Within digital activity, all sectors increased in size in 2021-22 except for Hardware, which fell 6.5%. The growth was driven by Support services (+11.4%), Software purchases (+25.0%) and online sales from wholesalers (+4.5%). Consumers continued to increase their online shopping habits in 2021-22, with E-commerce – retail growing 12.6%. This followed a significant increase in 2020-21 of 41.8%.

Graph 3 - Annual growth in value added (%), digital activity vs. total economy, Current prices, 2019-20 - 2021-22
	2019-2020 (%)	2020-21 (%)	2021-22 (%)
Digital media	-10.3	7.8	3.5
Software	14	17	25
Telecommunications	3.1	-0.1	4.6
E-commerce - Wholesale	13.4	8.6	4.5
E-commerce - Retail	25.3	41.8	12.6
Support services	7.5	5.8	11.4
Hardware	6	-0.1	-6.5
Total digital activity	8	7.7	8.6
Total Economy	2	5	11.7

Graph 3 - Annual growth in value added (%), digital activity vs. total economy, Current prices, 2019-20 - 2021-22

["","2019-2020 (%)","2020-21 (%)","2021-22 (%)"]

[["Digital media","Software","Telecommunications","E-commerce - Wholesale","E-commerce - Retail","Support services","Hardware","Total digital activity","Total Economy"],[[-10.300000000000001],[14],[3.1000000000000001],[13.4],[25.300000000000001],[7.5],[6],[8],[2]],[[7.7999999999999998],[17],[-0.10000000000000001],[8.5999999999999996],[41.799999999999997],[5.7999999999999998],[-0.10000000000000001],[7.7000000000000002],[5]],[[3.5],[25],[4.5999999999999996],[4.5],[12.6],[11.4],[-6.5],[8.5999999999999996],[11.699999999999999]]]

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Note: These estimates of value added do not include taxes less subsidies on products.

APA

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