Provincial and Territorial Cultural Indicators, 2020

The Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators (PTCI) are timely economic estimates of culture and sport in Canada made possible thanks to a joint initiative of Statistics Canada and a number of partners, including the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, and others.

Research goal

The PTCI are an extension of the Culture Satellite Account (CSA), an accounting framework developed to measure the economic importance of culture (including arts and heritage), and sport to the Canadian economy.

Methods

Data are extracted from administrative files and derived from Statistics Canada surveys and other sources.

Outcomes

Key highlights from the Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators, 2020 include:

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

• The total GDP for culture was $55.5 billion in 2020, a decrease of 6.0% from 2019.
• The largest contributors to this decline were the live performance (-$972.2 million or -32.0%) and heritage and libraries (-$180.3 million or -22.8%) domains.
• Offsetting those decreases was an increase in the culture governance, funding and professional support domain (+$125.3 million or +1.5%), as government spending increased. For instance, governmental programs such as the Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations were administered in an effort to help the culture and sport sectors manage the challenges and impact of COVID-19.
• Culture accounted for 2.7% Canada’s overall GDP in 2020, virtually unchanged from 2019.
• Data from this release indicate that the culture GDP decreased in all provinces from 2019 to 2020. Decreases ranged from 0.9% (Nunavut) to 10.1% (Alberta).
• The top 5 provinces and territories with the highest culture GDP are Ontario ($27.0 billion, or a 48.7% share of the total culture GDP), Quebec ($11.2 billion, or a 20.1% share), British Columbia ($8.0 billion, or a 14.4% share), Alberta ($4.7 billion, or a 8.5% share) and Manitoba ($1.5 billion, or a 2.7% share).

Culture Jobs

• The total number of culture jobs decreased by 10.6%, falling from 671,565 in 2019 to 600,553 in 2020.
• Combined, the heritage and libraries and live performance domains saw a decrease of over 22,000 jobs, accounting for close to one-third of total culture job losses.

• The proportion of culture jobs to the economy as a whole remains relatively stable at about 3.4%.
• Data from this release indicate that the culture jobs decreased in all provinces from 2019 to 2020. Decreases ranged from 3.8% (New Brunswick) to 14.0% (Yukon).

• The top 5 provinces and territories with the highest number of culture jobs are Ontario (254,985, or a 42.5% share of total culture jobs), Quebec (140,690, or a 23.4% share), British Columbia (102,579, or a 17.1% share), Alberta (46,219, or an 7.7% share) and Manitoba (18,579, or a 3.1% share).

Questions?

Please contact the Research, Measurement and Data Analytics Section at research@canadacouncil.ca.