YORK'S creative industry growth has been mirrored by national trends as the sector reports expansion more than twice the rate of the wider UK economy.

Latest figures from the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) also reveal a rise in the number of exports from the sector.

Jobs within the creative industries increased by 5.5 per cent compared to the national 2.1 per cent rise in employment between 2013 and 2014.

The sector is now home to 1.8 million jobs, 85,000 of which are in Yorkshire.

Heather Niven, head of Science City York, part of the council's new marketing company Make it York, said: "We are delighted to see the UK’s creative industries go from strength to strength and here in York we are seeing a similar buoyancy in our creative digital business community.

"With the new UNESCO Media Arts designation we are even better placed to drive the export of our creative businesses’ products and services, to contribute to the continued growth and recovery in a global market. And what better place to do this from than from York."

Exports from the creative industries have increased by 34.2 per cent, the equivalent of around £4.5 billion, between 2009 and 2013, outperforming the rest of the UK economy by almost 15 per cent.

York's creative businesses have been contributing to the trends with a number of companies trading overseas and putting their work on show to the world.

Tockwith-based Stage One's latest project is on being visited by thousands of international visitors after it won the £6 million contract to build the UK Pavilion at this year's World Expo.

Made from aluminium, the structure, called The Hive, is made up of 169,300 different components - all manufactured on the outskirts of York.

Over recent years the company has worked on numerous international film, television and sporting events having been involved in the Olympic Games ceremonies since Athens in 2004, as well as constructive the set for the Eurovision Song Contest and MTV Music Awards.

Also enjoying a global reach is York-based game designer Revolution Software, which saw its latest game Shadow of Temple, downloaded 2.5 million times in a single day.

In 2011 its earlier game Broken Sword went to number one on the Apple App store in every major European territory, achieved five million downloads, and was one of the world's top ten most Tweeted keywords.