SECOND UK GAMES INDUSTRY CENSUS: Ukie reveals diversity stats & working habits

The census, which was carried out by the University of Sheffield and surveyed over 3,600 games industry professionals, asked respondents about their personal characteristics and background – such as ethnicity, gender identity and sexuality – as well as about their working practices. 

It also explored a number of new areas such as the impact of the pandemic on working practices and attitudes towards the workplace and industry to deepen our understanding of the sector.  

Looking at mental health conditions, 38% of the people who responded to the census reported that they suffered from anxiety, depression or both. This is up from 31% before the pandemic. 

Pre-pandemic, 66% of people in the industry reported that they worked in the office, compared to 9% at home and 7% working in a hybrid system. By Autumn 2021 when the survey took place, 80% were working at home,  8% from the office alone and 11% in a mix of both. 

Looking ahead, only 10% of industry workers expressed a preference to work from the office in the future. Meanwhile, 52% of respondents said that their ideal working situation would be a hybrid approach, and 38% wanted to work from home full time. 

Overall, attitudes to both individual workplaces and the industry at large tend to be positive. The vast majority of people who work in the sector feel proud to do so, with 87% of people honoured to tell others where they work specifically, and 85% proud to be a part of the UK games industry.  However, people tend to speak more positively about their company than the industry as a whole. For example, whilst 83% of respondents recommended their own workplace as a great place to work, only 66% said the same about the games industry as a whole. 

The demographic profile of the UK games industry
The gender make-up of the industry diversified slightly. According to this year’s census, 67% of the workforce is male, 30% is female and 3% is non-binary. This compares to 70%, 28% and 2% in 2020 respectively.  

The representation of different sexualities increased from the 2020 census. The number of people who reported a sexuality other than heterosexual was up to 24% from 21% – significantly higher than in the wider adult population.  
The games industry workforce remains young with 61% aged  35 or under in 2022, although this was a slight reduction compared to 66% two years earlier. 

The figures for ethnic groups remained similar to those reported two years ago, with 66% of the workforce reporting that they are White British, 24% as White Other, 5% as Black, 2% as Asian, 2% as Mixed/Multiple ethnicity and a further 2% as other. 

Mental health and neurodiversity in the games industry
The games industry has more neurodivergent people working within it than the working age population. Overall, 18% of respondents reported having at least one neurodevelopmental condition. More people in games were autistic or had a condition affecting concentration, such as ADHD, than the working-age population. 

 

You can read the full UK Games Industry Census report for 2022 on the Ukie website here.  And we will be taking a more in-depth look at the figures next week.