Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the culture and sports sectors in Canada was nearly unchanged (+0.0%) in the third quarter despite a 0.3% growth in real GDP for the total economy. On a nominal basis, GDP for the culture and sports sectors rose 0.7% in the third quarter, following a 1.4% growth in the second quarter.
The number of jobs attributable to culture and sport also recorded little change in the third quarter, growing by 918 (+0.1%) to reach 745,580 jobs.
Modest gross domestic product gains led by supporting services
Nominal GDP for the culture sector rose 0.6% to $15.7 billion in the third quarter, following a 1.3% increase in the second quarter. During the third quarter, seven of the nine culture domains experienced growth. The strongest growth was in the multi-domain (+2.5%), which consists of culture supporting services. This was followed by the governance, funding and professional support domain (+2.2%) for culture.
Overall culture growth in the third quarter was hampered by a decline in the audio-visual and interactive media domain (-0.5%) driven by declines in the related broadcasting (-0.5%) and interactive media (-0.9%) subdomains. The written and published works domain (-0.3%) also decreased.
Nominal GDP in the sport sector grew 1.3% during the third quarter, down from a 1.9% growth in the second quarter. Growth occurred in all sport subdomains, led by governance, funding and professional support (+2.3%).
Chart 1: Culture and sport nominal gross domestic product (GDP), quarterly
Description - Chart 1
Data table: Culture and sport nominal gross domestic product (GDP), quarterly
Source: Table 36-10-0652-01.
Job growth sluggish for second consecutive quarter
Culture sector jobs saw minimal changes for the second consecutive quarter; they barely shifted (+0.0%) in the third quarter, following a growth of 0.1% (+929 jobs) in the second quarter. Changes to jobs attributable to culture were restrained across the culture domains in the third quarter, ranging from a gain of 2.3% (+240 jobs) in the multi-domain to a decrease of 1.4% (-274 jobs) in the heritage and libraries domain.
Jobs attributable to sport grew by 0.7% (+744 jobs) in the third quarter to reach 104,095 jobs. This gain was led by organized sport, which grew 1.1% (+444 jobs) in the quarter.
Chart 2: Change in jobs by culture domain, third quarter of 2024
Description - Chart 2
Data table: Change in jobs by culture domain, third quarter of 2024
1. The heritage and libraries domain includes only private institutions. All institutions owned or operated by the government (federal, provincial or municipal) are included in the governance, funding and professional support (culture) domain.
2. Government-owned or government-operated institutions (except schools, colleges and universities) are in the governance, funding and professional support domain even if their activity falls within the scope of one of the other subdomains. For example, a government-operated library would be included in the governance, funding and professional support (culture) domain and not in the libraries subdomain.
3. The multi-domain category includes culture industries that are associated with more than one culture domain: the culture portion of the convention and trade show organizers, manufacturing and reproducing unrecorded media, lessors of nonfinancial intangible assets (except copyrighted works), and Internet broadcasting and web search portal industries. These culture industries all affect more than one culture domain but cannot be easily allocated to a single domain; therefore, they have been aggregated. As of 2017, publishers publishing exclusively on the Internet were moved from the multi-domain to their associated subdomain within written and published works.
Source: Table 36-10-0652-01.
Note to readers
The National Culture Indicators are an extension of the Provincial and Territorial Culture Satellite Account and the Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators.
The fourth quarter of 2024 release will include impacts from Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in Canada. The direct impact of concerts like this are part of the performing arts subdomain of the live performance domain, while secondary effects on accommodation and food services fall outside the scope of the culture sector.
Revisions
With the release of data for the third quarter of 2024, data for the first and second quarters of 2024 have been revised.
Volume and price estimates for real gross domestic product (GDP) were updated to a 2017 (2017=100) reference year as part of the first quarter 2024 release.
Data
Data are available for GDP in nominal, basic prices and constant prices (2017 prices).
Data on real GDP (corrected for price changes) are provided as a means to examine economic growth within the culture and sport sectors, as well as to make comparisons with other sectors.
Unless otherwise stated, GDP in this release refers to nominal GDP, at basic prices.
Growth rates in this release are represented as the percentage change in the series from one quarter to the next unless otherwise stated.
Data have been seasonally adjusted. All data are based on the product perspective.
Information about which products are incorporated into each subdomain is available in the Canadian Culture Satellite Account methodology.
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 starting in the first quarter of 2016 to improve estimates around video game development and website design. They affect the design and interactive media subdomains of the visual and applied arts domain and the audio-visual and interactive media domain, respectively.
There is a noticeable break in the data series in the interactive media and design subdomains between the fourth quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. This break does not represent a real change in economic conditions. Estimates prior to the first quarter of 2016 are on the old basis and should be used with caution.
Reference
Data table: 36-10-0652-01.
- Note: some data tables may best be viewed on desktop.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5360.
Previous release: National culture indicators, second quarter 2024.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).