National culture indicators, first quarter 2024
Released: 2024-06-27
First quarter 2024
0.5% 
(quarterly change)
640,168 jobs
First quarter 2024
0.3%
(quarterly change)
First quarter 2024
0.8%
(quarterly change)
103,109 jobs
First quarter 2024
0.5%
(quarterly change)
Real gross domestic product (GDP) for the culture and sport sectors in Canada rose 0.6% to $14.5 billion in the first quarter. Growth in culture and sport surpassed real GDP growth for the total economy (+0.4%). On a nominal basis, GDP for the combined culture and sport sectors was up 1.2% in the first quarter.
Jobs attributable to culture and sport grew 0.3% in the first quarter, bringing the total number of jobs to 743,277.
Steady growth in gross domestic product across most culture and sport domains
Nominal GDP for the culture sector increased 1.2% to $15.4 billion in the first quarter, following a 0.7% increase in the fourth quarter of 2023. Most culture domains saw growth in the first quarter of 2024 except the written and published works domain and the live performance domain. Growth in nominal GDP ranged from a high of 2.8% for the culture education and training domain to a low of -1.2% for the written and published works domain.
The audio-visual and interactive media domain (+2.7%) also showed strong growth in the first quarter, because the film and video subdomain has rebounded significantly (+11.0%), after two consecutive quarterly declines (-16.4% in the third quarter of 2023 and -5.8% in the fourth quarter). The rebound was driven by the end of the simultaneous Hollywood writers and actors strikes, which ended in September 2023 for the writers strike and in November 2023 for the actors strike.
Five of the six written and published works subdomains achieved modest positive growth in the first quarter of 2024. By contrast, the multi-subdomain, which makes up over half of the written and published works domain's GDP, dropped 2.8% leading to a decrease of 1.2% for the domain as a whole. The multi-subdomain, which is composed of various support services such as printing, translation and editing, and publishing retail has seen declines in GDP growth in the last four quarters as sales of goods manufactured in the printing industry have declined in these periods.
In the first quarter, nominal GDP in the sport sector grew slightly faster than in the culture sector, up 1.4%. This growth was led by sports education and training, which increased 2.4%, followed by informal sport, which rose by 2.0%. Organized sport fell slightly, down -0.1%.
Chart 1
Culture and sport nominal gross domestic product (GDP), quarterly
Jobs gained in the film and video subdomain largely offset by losses in live performance and broadcasting
The number of jobs in the culture sector grew 0.3% in the first quarter, reaching 640,168. Although this increase was modest, it represented the first quarter of growth in the last six quarters.
The culture sector added over 1,900 jobs in the first quarter. This was driven by the film and video subdomain, which rose 7.6% (+4,216 jobs). Three other domains (culture education and training, governance, funding and culture professional support, and multi-domain) also contributed to job growth, which together generated 1,638 jobs. Over the same period, the live performance domain lost 1,835 jobs (-2.5%), and the broadcasting subdomain lost 1,290 jobs (-2.6%), together offsetting around two-thirds of the jobs created by the film and video subdomain in the quarter. The remaining domains and subdomains combined lost 825 jobs in the quarter.
Similar to the culture sector, sport jobs slightly increased (+0.5%) in the first quarter, up 515 jobs to reach 103,109 total jobs. Growth was mainly driven by sports education and training (+1.9%, or +759 jobs), and sports governance, funding and professional support (+1.0%, or +131 jobs). Organized sport lost 434 jobs (-1.0%) in the first quarter.
Chart 2
Change in jobs by culture domain, first quarter of 2024
Did you know we have a mobile app?
Download our mobile app and get timely access to data at your fingertips! The StatsCAN app is available for free on the App Store and on Google Play.
Note to readers
The National Culture Indicators (NCI) are an extension of the Provincial and Territorial Culture Satellite Account and the Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators (PTCI).
Revisions
Alongside the release of the first quarter of 2024, data back to the first quarter of 2020 have also been revised. The NCI are benchmarked to the PTCI on an annual basis, and data from 2020 to 2022 have been revised to incorporate changes in the annual 2022 PTCI. See Revisions under the PTCI for more information. The NCI also revised all quarters of 2023 to account for the PTCI changes and incorporate additional data.
In addition, volume and price estimates for real gross domestic product (GDP) have been updated to the 2017 (2017=100) reference year.
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 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.
Audio-visual and interactive media and visual and applied art
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.
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).
- Date modified: