Census metropolitan areas as culture clusters

Almost 600,000 Canadians worked in culture industries in 2001 and over one-half of them were located in just three metropolitan centres: Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver. However, other urban areas formed smaller, but important "culture clusters," according to a comprehensive new report.

Of these culture industry workers, 80% resided in one of the nation's 27 census metropolitan areas and 51% resided in Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver. About one-third of Canada's total labour force was located in these three centres.

Toronto alone had an estimated 154,000 culture industry workers in 2001, followed by Montréal (97,800) and Vancouver (54,500).

Toronto was the nation's dominant force for culture industries, particularly from the point of view of earned revenues. It had a large cultural work force involved in industries such as advertising, printing, motion picture and video industries, publishing and specialized design services.

Montréal formed the second largest bastion of culture in terms of wages and earned revenue for most culture industries, but it led on all measures for the performing arts. It also had more firms than Toronto in several culture industries, including film production, performing arts, book publishing and sound recording.

Other metropolitan areas formed smaller, but notable, "culture clusters." These included Vancouver and, to a lesser extent, Halifax, for domestic film production. Vancouver, Ottawa–Hull and Winnipeg earned sizeable shares of performing arts revenues, and St. Catharines–Niagara had the highest per capita revenues.

Victoria and Vancouver had highest share of labour force employed in culture occupations

Data on industry employment provide a broad statistical look at culture within Canada's metropolitan areas. However, culture industries employ workers in occupations such as administration and accounting that are not directly involved in the production of culture. Consequently, this report examines culture occupations, defined in terms of the type of the work people do rather than the industry in which they are employed.

In 2001, 218,000 Canadians worked in culture occupations in Canada's 27 metropolitan areas, or 2.1% of the total labour force of 10.3 million who worked in these centres.

The two metropolitan areas with the highest proportion of their total labour force employed in cultural occupations were both in British Columbia: Victoria and Vancouver. In both areas, 2.7% of the work force was employed in cultural occupations. Sudbury was at the other end of the range with 0.8% of their labour force employed as culture workers.

The high proportion of culture workers in Victoria was due to high numbers employed as musicians, singers, authors, writers, artisans and craftspeople, painters, sculptors and other visual artists. Vancouver had a much higher than average share of its labour force employed as graphic designers, architects, producers, directors and choreographers, actors and comedians, musicians, singers, painters and sculptors and other visual artists.

In Toronto, 2.6% of the work force, or 65,500 people, were employed in a cultural occupation. Many of these individuals worked in Toronto's theatre and advertising sectors, and many worked as producers, actors, and graphic, theatre and fashion designers.

Ottawa–Hull had a high percentage of its labour force employed in culture occupations relative to other urban areas. The government sector played an important role in this, with many culture workers employed as librarians, archivists, editors, journalists and conservators and curators.

Halifax and St. John's also had high percentages of their labour forces in culture occupations, ranking 6th and 8th out of the 27 urban centres.

Smaller urban centres led in per capita enrolment and graduates

This report also examined the number of students in universities, community colleges and trade schools to determine which metropolitan areas were principal suppliers to the culture labour market.

Montréal and Toronto had the highest number of enrolments and graduates in culture courses, further strengthening their position as culture clusters.

However, smaller urban centres stood out when enrolment and graduates were expressed on a per capita basis. These centres included Kingston, Chicoutimi–Jonquière, Sherbrooke, Halifax and London.

For example, in the academic year 1998/99, Kingston had 1.2 students enrolled in a culture program for every 100 residents. In 2000, it had 0.27 culture graduates for every 100 residents. This is the result of a large university (Queen's University) in a smaller urban centre, and the high enrolment and large number of graduates from its English program.

Like Kingston, Sherbrooke had high per capita enrolments and graduates, thanks to the French program at local universities. Halifax also had a large number of university culture students relative to its population. It ranked third amongst urban centres in terms of per capita culture enrolment and tied for second for graduates.

Workers in culture occupations more likely to migrate than non-culture workers

Overall, culture workers were more likely to move from place-to-place than non-culture workers. In fact, 1 out of every 8 culture workers in an urban centre in 2001 had migrated there from elsewhere in Canada during the previous five years. This contrasts with 1 out of every 10 non-culture workers.

Furthermore, culture workers in all but one urban centre were more likely than non-culture workers to have left their original metropolitan area between 1996 and 2001, for another destination in Canada. The sole exception was St. John's, where culture workers were more prone to stay even though the unemployment rate among culture workers was higher there than for non-culture workers.

Between 1996 and 2001, Toronto and Montréal had the largest net inflow of culture workers from other areas.

In terms of international migration, 6% of culture workers in Toronto in 2001 had immigrated to Canada in the previous five years. In contrast, 7.5% of its non-culture workers were recent immigrants.

The situation was reversed in Vancouver and Montréal. For example, 7.9% of all culture workers in Vancouver were recent immigrants in 2001, compared with 7.0% of non-culture workers.

Culture workers older on average and tend to earn less than non-culture workers

Culture workers were on average older and more highly educated than non-culture workers. They were also less likely to be a visible minority or an Aboriginal person.

On average, culture workers in urban centres had average earnings of $31,000 in 2000, lower than the average of $33,800 for non-culture workers.

The gap between the two groups was smallest in the largest urban centres. This was likely due to the greater prevalence of well-paying cultural occupations, such as architects, in large urban centres.

Culture workers in Ottawa–Hull and Toronto had the highest average employment incomes, just below that of their non-culture counterparts.

Culture workers in urban centres were also five times more likely to have earned income from self-employment than non-culture workers. However, culture workers in urban centres had an average income from self-employment of only $22,200 in 2000, well below the average of $33,100 for non-culture workers.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey numbers, including related surveys, 2413, 2414, 2415, 2416, 3105, 3107, 3108, 3122, 3124, 3139, 3155 and 3901.

The fourth research paper in the new series Trends and Conditions in Census Metropolitan Areas: Census Metropolitan Areas as Culture Clusters, no. 4 (89-613-MIE2004004, free), is now available online. To access the series, go to the Statistics Canada home page, select Studies on the left sidebar, then under Browse periodical and series, choose Free and for sale.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact David Coish (613-951-1075; david.coish@statcan.gc.ca), Culture Statistics Program, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.