'It is not a niche creative activity sitting at the edge of the economy': Northern Ireland bucks UK trend as number of design firms grows 10%
Employment in design occupations rose by 15% between 2020 and 2025 - twice as fast as broader NI employment for the same period (7.5%)
Northern Ireland is bucking the UK trend for design businesses, with the number of design firms increasing by 10% between 2021 and 2025, according to new research from the Design Council.
Design Economy 2026, the Design Council’s flagship study into the value of design, shows the scale of design’s contribution across industries, places and jobs, and argues that strengthening design capability will be critical to delivering good growth across the UK.
Design Economy 2026 report, which is published every three years, reveals a growing demand for design skills across Northern Ireland’s economy. Employment in design occupations increased by 15% between 2020 and 2025 - twice the 7.5% increase in employment across Northern Ireland overall.
Design-related jobs now account for 5.3% of all employment in Northern Ireland, demonstrating that design skills and opportunities extend beyond traditional creative businesses and are increasingly embedded across the wider economy.
The Design Council says this growing regional contribution demonstrates the potential for design to support successful devolution, place-based innovation and community-led economic development, helping regions translate investment into higher-value jobs and stronger local economies.
One example of this in practice is Future Island-Island (FII), a project based in and co-designed with the community of Rathlin Island that translates design-led research into practical responses to the climate crisis.
Its work includes finding new uses for Rathlin wool, historically a waste product on the island, including turning it into rope for kelp farming, as an alternative to plastic. FII has also explored lower-cardon 3D rendering technologies to create digital twins of the natural environment, helping reserve heritage artefacts and make them more widely accessible.
Dr Clare Mulholland, senior lecturer in Architecture, School of Natural and Built Environment (Queen’s University Belfast) and co-director of the Future Island-Island GTE, said: “Future Island–Island is advancing knowledge of circular economies by demonstrating how hyper-local, place-based design can generate solutions with global relevance. By working alongside island communities, we are exploring how local resources, circular materials and traditional knowledge can support greener ways of living, creating scalable models for a more regenerative future.”
Professor Paul Moore, director Future Screens NI, co-director Ulster Creative Industries Institute (CII), continued: “The experience of the creative industries sector in Northern Ireland is that if a direct intervention is made at community level, with training delivered in the communities, then young people can gain the skills necessary to leapfrog the education system which has failed them and progress to real work in the multiple settings. These new skills bases help to facilitate an increase in design companies in the region, supporting all aspects of the design ecosystem in Northern Ireland.”
However, the report also warns that future growth cannot be taken for granted. In the UK as a whole, entries for Design and Technology GCSEs have fallen by 68% over the decade to 2024, raising concerns about the future skills pipeline at a time when businesses need design capabilities to respond to rapid technological change, including AI. Progress on workforce diversity also remains slow: women account for only 25% of designers, while Black designers make up 2% of the design workforce compared with 5% of the wider UK working population.
Mat Hunter, chief executive of the Design Council, added: “These figures should change the way we think about design. It is not a niche creative activity sitting at the edge of the economy; it is a £136.7 billion capability embedded in the way organisations effectively innovate, tackle complex problems and grow.
“What is particularly exciting is the opportunity for growth to reach every part of the UK. Stronger design capability can help cities and regions build on their existing strengths, create higher-value jobs and turn local investment and innovation into a long-term economic advantage.
“The opportunity now is to make sure that capability is available everywhere - in businesses and public services, across every region and nation - and that we invest in the skills and diversity needed to sustain it for the future.”
The Design Council says the findings demonstrate the potential for design to support regional growth, place-based innovation and higher-value jobs, and is calling for government, businesses and public bodies to strengthen design capability and invest in regional design ecosystems and the skills pipeline.