Statistics Canada: National Culture Indicators Q3
SAA Summary
At the beginning of this year, The Daily, the media outlet for Statistics Canada, released its quarterly report on national culture and sport indicators. This report documents recent changes in GDP and jobs in these industries. As The Daily reports on both culture and sport as a single unit, the SAA has prepared this summary to review the arts and culture information in more detail.
As reported by The Daily, the real GDP of the combined culture and sport sectors remained nearly unchanged (up 0.0%) in the third quarter of 2024, despite a 0.3% growth in the overall economy’s real GDP. Nominal GDP did rise 0.7% for culture and sport, though this is half the 1.4% growth seen in the second quarter.
The nominal GDP for culture rose by 0.6% in the third quarter, compared to the 1.3% growth in sports. Both sectors saw less growth (1.3% and 1.9% respectively in the second quarter.) The nominal GDP for culture in Q3 is $15.7 billion, up from $15.6 billion in the second quarter. Despite seeing more growth, sport’s nominal GDP remains around the $1.9 billion mark ($1.917 billion compared to $1.892 billion in Q2.)
Nearly all subdomains saw GDP growth, the highest being seen by the Mult-Domain category with 2.5%, with Governance, Funding & Professional Support coming in second with 2.21%. Unfortunately, both Audio-Visual and Interactive Media (0.45%) and Written & Published Works (0.29%) saw declines.
The most significant growth was seen in the subdomains of Libraries (3.06%), Archives (2.82%), the Multi-Domain category (2.50%), and Governance, funding, and professional support (2.21%).
However, many subdomains saw a decline. The most significant was Periodicals, which saw a 1.05% decrease. This was followed by Interactive Media, with a 0.93% decline; the Multi-Subdomain of Written and Published Works (0.56%); and Broadcasting (0.52%).
There was relatively little job growth in the culture sector in Q3: only 174 jobs were added (0.03% growth), bringing the total number of jobs in the sector to 641,485. This is a significant decline from the large gains seen in Q2. However, as discussed in the SAA’s Q2 summary, if we remove the job gains in film (which were residual effects of the 2023 strike), only 186 jobs gained in Q2, making the decline in Q3 seem less dramatic.
The most significant job losses were in culture: Cultural Heritage declined by 1.74%, Natural Heritage declined by 1.63%, Interactive Media decreased by 1.14%, and Periodicals decreased by 1.07%.
The most significant growth was seen in the Multi Domain subdomain (2.33%) with Libraries (1.92%), Archives (1.82%) and Photography (0.7% following.) Although Written & Published Works saw a decline in jobs (0.48%), some of its subdomains did grow: Other published works saw 0.58% growth; Collected Information had a 0.34% increase; and Newspapers saw 0.17% growth.
Q3 continues the uneven trend that began in Q2: while there appears to be some growth in certain subdomains, others are struggling. The overall result is aptly reflected in the Daily’s summary: there has been a stagnation in arts & culture, as represented by that 0.0% growth. The sector may not be dramatically declining, but it can hardly be said to be thriving, and on the whole, arts & culture are hobbling along, trying to keep pace with the rest of the economy, despite facing cuts and funding stagnation.
