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Provincial and Territorial Cultural Indicators, 2023

June 2, 2025

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, 2023 include:

 

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

  • Canada's culture GDP rose 5.2% to $63.2B in 2023, with increases in all domains.
  • The largest contributors to this gain were the culture governance, funding, and professional support domain (+$0.9B; +9.5%), visual and applied arts (+$0.7B; +5.2%) and live performance (+$0.4B; +12.7%) domains.
  • As a proportion of total economy GDP, culture accounted for 2.3% in 2023, unchanged from 2022.
  • The 5 provinces and territories with the highest culture GDP were Ontario ($28.0B, or a 44.2% share of the total culture GDP), Quebec ($13.7B, or a 21.6% share), British Columbia ($10.5B, or a 16.6% share), Alberta ($5.5B, or an 8.8% share) and Manitoba ($1.8B, or a 2.8% share).

Culture Jobs

  • Culture jobs increased 2.4% to 669,600 in 2023. Growth was led by job increases in both the visual and applied arts and the live performance domains.
  • The share of culture jobs accounted for 3.2% of all jobs in Canada.
  • The number of culture jobs increased in all provinces except the Northwest Territories (-4.7%) from 2022 to 2023. Increases ranged from 1.8% (Ontario) to 8.5% (Prince Edward Island).
  • The 5 provinces and territories with the highest number of culture jobs were Ontario (267,378 or a 39.9% share of total culture jobs), Quebec (161,624, or a 24.1% share), British Columbia (122,644, or a 18.3% share), Alberta (53,189, or an 7.9% share) and Manitoba (21,344, or a 3.2% share).

Provincial/Territorial Culture Totals for 2023

Culture GDP in 2023 - In thousands of dollars Culture jobs in 2023
Canada 63,240,566 669,591
Newfoundland and Labrador 521,624 5,052
Prince Edward Island 148,456 1,953
Nova Scotia 1,180,954 13,973
New Brunswick 661,683 7,631
Quebec 13,674,212 161,624
Ontario 27,975,914 267,378
Manitoba 1,754,883 21,344
Saskatchewan 1,055,545 12,832
Alberta 5,548,480 53,189
British Columbia 10,478,636 122,644
Yukon 82,520 867
Northwest Territories 84.856 635
Nunavut 72,333 466

Source: Statistics Canada, Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators, 2010 to 2023. Date: June 2, 2025

Culture Gross Domestic Product and Jobs, Detailed Figures for 2023

Heritage and Libraries
  Gross Domestic Product (GDP)* Jobs**
Archives 26,888 274
Libraries 136,728 1,133
Culture Heritage 567,168 11,898
Natural Heritage 275,654 5,687
Total 1,006,439 18,992
Audio-Visual and Interactive Media
  Gross Domestic Product (GDP)* Jobs**
Film and Video 4,424,736 80,034
Broadcasting 10,776,064 49,249
Interactive Media 3,885,138 33,239
Total 19,085,938 162,522
Written and Published Works
  Gross Domestic Product (GDP)* Jobs**
Books 1,065,508 9,922
Periodicals 8,38,009 8,099
Newspaper 1,159,896 14,098
Other published works 85,848 927
Collected information 479,810 4,482
Multi 4,236,802 53,504
Total 7,865,873 91,032
Sound Recording
  Gross Domestic Product (GDP)* Jobs**
Music Publishing 160,101 1,911
Sound Recording 346,565 3,399
Total 506,666 5,310
Visual and Applied Arts
  Gross Domestic Product (GDP)* Jobs**
Original visual art 304,777 3,715
Art reproductions 45,529 764
Photography 1,174,429 13,729
Crafts 2,770,570 29,991
Advertising 3,321,740 33,605
Architecture 2,439,396 19,569
Design 4,009,505 54,260
Total 14,065,947 155,634
Live Performance
  Gross Domestic Product (GDP)* Jobs**
Performing Arts 3,468,471 68,968
Festivals and Celebrations 196,582 4,089
Total 3,665,053 73,057
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)* Jobs**
Education and training 4,591,277 58,406
Governance, funding and professional support 10,908,812 94,420
Multi 1,544,563 10,218

Notes:

*Culture GDP in thousands of dollars

**Culture Jobs

Figures may not ad up to totals due to rounding.

Source: Statistics Canada, Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators, 2010 to 2023. Date: June 2, 2025

Questions?

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