The culture and sport sectors in Canada registered their third consecutive year of increased economic activity in 2023.
Nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of culture and sport increased in all provinces and territories in 2023 with Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia leading the way. Canada's nominal GDP attributable to culture and sport increased 5.6% from 2022 to reach $70.8 billion in 2023; this outpaced the growth of total economy GDP (+2.7%). The contribution of culture and sport to economy-wide GDP stood at 2.6% in 2023, an uptick from the share recorded in 2022 (2.5%).
In 2023, employment in culture and sport increased 2.8%, a gain of approximately 21,000 jobs, while economy-wide jobs advanced at a faster pace (+3.4%). Overall, the share of jobs attributable to culture and sport compared to the total number of Canadian jobs remained at 3.7%. Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia contributed the most to job growth.
Culture sector continues to grow
Canada's culture nominal GDP increased 5.2% to $63.2 billion in 2023, with increases recorded in all domains. The largest contributors to this growth were the culture governance, funding, and professional support domain (+$0.9 billion; +9.5%), the visual and applied arts domain (+$0.7 billion; +5.2%), and the live performance domain (+$0.4 billion; +12.7%). Design, advertising, and architecture were the primary subdomains behind increases to the visual and applied arts domain, while performing arts was the primary subdomain behind increases to the live performance domain.
As a proportion of total economy GDP, culture accounted for 2.3% in 2023, unchanged from the previous year.
The number of culture jobs grew 2.4% to 669,600 in 2023, representing 3.2% of all jobs in Canada. There were increases across all domains, with the exception of audio-visual and interactive media which registered declines in the film and video subdomain as a result of employees being away from work due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.
Strong growth in Canada's sport sector
Sport GDP was up 9.0% in 2023, totalling $7.6 billion, with all subdomains increasing. Organized sport saw the largest increase, with GDP growing by 11.5% to reach $2.1 billion; this level surpassed the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level from 2019 for the first time.
Similar to sport GDP, sport employment increased in all subdomains in 2023. Altogether, sport jobs increased 5.3%, to 99,600. Unlike sport GDP, jobs in the organized sport subdomain remained below pre-pandemic levels despite a 6.4% increase.
Growth in culture and sport across Canada
All provinces and territories saw growth in 2023. Canada's three largest provinces—British Columbia (+5.1%; +$507.6 million), Quebec (+4.6%; +$599.2 million), and Ontario (+5.4%; +$1.4 billion)—observed moderate increases in culture GDP. Reflecting the diverse economies across the country, the contribution of culture to economy-wide GDP varied across Canada, ranging from 1.0% in Saskatchewan to 2.7% in both Ontario and British Columbia.
In terms of employment, all provinces and territories posted culture job gains in 2023, with the exception of the Northwest Territories (-4.7%). Culture jobs as a share of total economy jobs, ranged from 1.9% in both Nunavut and New Brunswick to 4.2% in British Columbia.
All provinces and territories experienced increases in sport GDP in 2023, with Ontario (+$295.4 million; +10.0%), British Columbia (+$145.9 million; +12.0%), and Quebec (+$70.0 million; +7.1%) increasing by the largest amounts. As a share of sport GDP to total economy-wide GDP, there was not much variation across Canada. Increases in employment attributable to sport were seen in all provinces and in Yukon.
Focus on Canada and the United States
Potential impacts of trade disruptions on film production
The film and video subdomain accounted for $4.4 billion of culture gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023. That represents 7.0% of total culture GDP in Canada and is the 4th largest subdomain in the culture sector. Tariffs on the film industry would have the greatest impact on British Columbia and Quebec as the film and video subdomain represents 12.3% and 9.0% of their total culture GDP respectively. While Ontario has the largest film and video subdomain ($1.5 billion), it only represents 5.3% of their total culture GDP.
For more data and insights on areas touched by the socio-economic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.
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Note to readers
The Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators (PTCI) were developed as an extension of the more comprehensive Provincial and Territorial Culture Satellite Account. The PTCI cover culture (including arts and heritage) and sport across Canada in terms of output, nominal gross domestic product (GDP), and jobs for the period from 2010 to 2023.
The PTCI are a joint initiative of Statistics Canada, other federal agencies, all provincial and territorial governments, as well as non-governmental organizations.
All the GDP figures in this release are expressed in nominal, basic prices. Total economy GDP is calculated using income-based GDP at market prices minus taxes less subsidies on products and imports.
This release focuses on the product perspective of the PTCI—the production of culture and sport goods and services and their contribution to output, GDP and jobs in both culture and non-culture industries and sport and non-sport industries.
Culture GDP is the economic value added associated with culture activities. This is the value added related to the production of culture goods and services across the economy, regardless of the producing industry. Culture jobs are the number of jobs that are related to the production of culture goods and services.
Sport GDP is the economic value added associated with sport activities. This is the value added related to the production of sport goods and services across the economy regardless of the producing industry. Sport jobs are the number of jobs that are related to the production of sport goods and services.
Film and video
The film and video subdomain underwent major enhancements starting with reference year 2015. The sources and methods for estimating this subdomain, notably the Survey of Service Industries: Film, Television and Video Production, have been revised to include improved estimation methods.
The new methodology increases the use of administrative data in combination with survey data to build the estimates. These methodological improvements were applied to all variables (GDP, output and jobs).
Written and published works
Print publishing has continued to decline as industries shift toward producing online content. This decline can be seen within the written and published works domain with the exception of the 2017 reference year. In 2017, the sources and methods for estimating this domain were enhanced to more accurately represent the presence of online publishers. This was a result of the new 2017 North American Industry Classification System.
Audio-visual and interactive media and visual and applied arts
Refinements to the video game publishing and design and development industries, and to the computer systems design and related services industry were introduced in 2016 to improve estimates around video game development and website design. These impact both the design and interactive media subdomains of the visual and applied arts domain and the audio-visual and interactive media domain, respectively.
The sources and methods used to estimate both these subdomains have been enhanced and were applied to all variables (GDP, output and jobs). The new methodology will use survey data for each province and territory specifically for the video game industries and website design activity in that geography.
Users can expect significant revisions to both design and interactive media starting in reference year 2016. There will be a noticeable break in the data series in most geographies for the interactive media and design subdomains from 2015 to 2016. This break does not represent a real change in economic conditions. Estimates prior to 2016 are on the old basis and should be used with caution.