National culture indicators, first quarter 2023
Released: 2023-08-09
First quarter 2023
1.0% 
(quarterly change)
717,227 jobs
First quarter 2023
0.1%
(quarterly change)
First quarter 2023
1.7%
(quarterly change)
107,388 jobs
First quarter 2023
2.5%
(quarterly change)
Real gross domestic product (GDP) of the culture and sports sectors in Canada rose 1.1% to $14.0 billion in the first quarter of 2023. Growth in the GDP of the culture and sports sectors continued to outpace that of the total economy, which was up 0.8% in the first quarter. On a nominal basis, GDP of the culture and sports sectors was up 2.0% in the first quarter.
Employment attributable to culture and sport grew 0.4% in the first quarter, bringing the total number of jobs to 824,615.
Consistent growth in gross domestic product of culture and sport at start of 2023
Nominal GDP of the culture sector increased 2.0% to $16.0 billion in the first quarter, following a 1.8% increase in the fourth quarter of 2022. All culture domains saw growth in the first quarter of 2023, ranging from a high of a 3.4% increase for the sound recording domain to a low of a 1.4% increase for both the audio-visual and interactive media domain and the governance, funding and professional support domain.
In the first quarter, nominal GDP of the sport sector (+2.5%) grew slightly faster than that of the culture sector. This growth was led by organized sport, marking four consecutive quarters of growth for the subdomain.
Chart 1
Culture and sport nominal gross domestic product (GDP), quarterly
Declines in film and video employment largely offset job growth in the broader culture sector
Employment in the culture sector grew 0.1% in the first quarter to 717,227 jobs, a slight deceleration from the previous quarter (+0.4%). Employment in culture industries continued to grow, albeit modestly, with six of the nine culture domains posting gains. Live performance (+2,220 jobs or +2.9%) posted the largest gains, followed by culture governance, funding and professional support (+1,744 or +1.8%) and culture education and training (+1,041 or +1.7%). Conversely, the growth in these domains was nearly offset by a decline in the audio-visual and interactive media domain (-4,649 or -2.5%). This was mostly on the back of the film and video subdomain, which saw a decline of 4.2% (-4,547) after having seen growth in six of the last seven quarters.
Sport employment continued its growth in the first quarter, rising 2.5% and exceeding 107,000 jobs. Growth continued to be driven by increases in the organized sport subdomain, though jobs increased in all four sport subdomains.
Chart 2
Change in jobs by culture domain, first quarter of 2023
Note to readers
The National Culture Indicators (NCI) are an extension of the Provincial and Territorial Culture Satellite Account (PTCSA) and the Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators (PTCI).
Revisions
Alongside the release of the first quarter of 2023, data back to the first quarter of 2012 have also been revised in order to incorporate changes from the PTCSA 2019 and the PTCI 2021.
The NCI estimates are revised according to revisions in the PTCI. This permits new culture and sport ratios to be incorporated into the NCI estimates. See Revisions under the PTCI for more information.
Revisions to the NCI (non-benchmark year), within the current reference year, are open for all quarters through the first quarter of the following year in order to incorporate additional data as they become available. These revisions are carried out in order to incorporate the most recent data on gross domestic product (GDP) and employment in culture and sport.
Data
Data are available for GDP in both nominal, basic prices and constant prices (2012 prices).
Data on real GDP (corrected for price changes) are provided as a means to examine economic growth within culture and sport, 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.
Changes in prices of select digital industries
The prices for certain digital industries, particularly those involved in subscription/streaming services, have been changed to better reflect their modern distribution methods. When the NCI were initially produced, the price indicators selected for certain industries that historically relied on physical media and/or sales of digital rights were too heavily weighted towards the sale of physical and digital copies of the products. The price indexes used to estimate these have been redeveloped to better incorporate subscription and other digital prices. Consequently, users may see significant changes to the constant dollar values for film and video, sound recording and music publishing. Users should also expect revisions to constant dollar values, albeit smaller, for certain publishing industries and related subdomains, such as libraries and archives, and the multi-domain.
Audio-visual and interactive media and visual and applied art
Starting in the first quarter of 2016, refinements were introduced to the video game publishing, design and development industries and the computer systems design and related services industry to improve estimates around video game development and website design. These improvements impact the design subdomain of the visual and applied arts domain and the interactive media subdomain of the audio-visual and interactive media domain.
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 for the interactive media and design subdomains from the fourth quarter of 2015 to 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.
Products
The data visualization product "National Culture Indicators: Interactive tool," which is part of Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products (71-607-X), is available.
The Economic accounts statistics portal, accessible from the Subjects module of the Statistics Canada website, features an up-to-date portrait of national and provincial economies and their structure.
The Latest Developments in the Canadian Economic Accounts (13-605-X) is available.
The User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (13-606-G) is available.
The Methodological Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (13-607-X) is available.
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).
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