Trade of culture and sport products, 2022

Released: 2024-10-09

In 2022, Canada's exports and imports of culture goods and services continued to grow, following a strong recovery in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic severely and abruptly affected the trade of culture and sport goods and services by disrupting cultural activities and events. However, the shift to digital trade and online consumption has accelerated, making culture more globally accessible and contributing to an uneven recovery in the trade of culture and sport products.

Total exports of culture and sport products grew 11.2% to reach $26.1 billion in 2022, representing 2.7% of Canada's total exports. This growth was preceded by an 18.2% increase in 2021.

Imports followed a similar trajectory, up 15.1% to $34.0 billion in 2022, after growing 8.0% in 2021. Imports of culture and sport products represented 3.6% of total imports in 2022.

The trade deficit (the difference between imports and exports) widened in 2022, with Canadian imports of culture and sport goods and services exceeding exports. The United States continued to be Canada's largest trading partner in culture and sport products, accounting for 66.1% of exports and 64.7% of imports.

International trade of culture products up in 2022, continuing growth from the previous year

Canada exported $24.5 billion of culture products in 2022, up 8.6% from the previous year, led by the domains of written and published works, live performance, and audio-visual and interactive media. At the subdomain level, crafts and film and video accounted for the largest portions of total culture exports. Exports of books increased by $195.5 million, or 24.1%, as the prominence of e-books grew, along with a resurgence in the sales of print titles (the physical copies of creative works).

Meanwhile, imports of culture products increased 11.0%, reaching $31.9 billion, led by visual and applied arts, audio-visual and interactive media, and live performance. At the subdomain level, crafts and broadcasting drove the increase.

Overall, culture products accounted for 2.6% of all goods and services exports and 3.4% of total imports in 2022. Most culture commodities that can be distributed digitally, such as interactive media and music publishing, have surpassed their pre-pandemic levels, while primarily in-person commodities, such as culture heritage, natural heritage, performing arts, and festivals and celebrations, have yet to fully recover. Film and video also exceeded pre-pandemic levels because of a backlog of previously delayed projects.

Chart 1 
International trade of culture products, by domain, 2022

Exports of sport products increase significantly

Following a slight rebound in 2021, Canadian exports of sport products continued to grow in 2022, up 76.5% to reach $1.6 billion. Growth was seen in all four sport subdomains, led by governance, funding and professional support (+$396.6 million) and organized sport (+$182.5 million), as pandemic restrictions eased and live professional and amateur sporting events could resume.

Chart 2 
International trade of sport products, by subdomain, 2022

International trade of culture and sport products

The United States continued to be Canada's largest trading partner for culture and sport products. However, in 2022, exports to the United States decreased 4.6 percentage points as a share of Canada's total exports of culture and sport products, while the share of Canada's imports from the United States declined by 1.7 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the share of Canada's exports and imports of culture and sport products to and from the European Union and Mexico increased more than 0.5% for each region.

Interprovincial and territorial trade of culture and sport products in 2020

Trade among the provinces and territories continued to play a key role in the Canadian economy. In 2020, interprovincial and territorial trade in culture products amounted to $14.3 billion, down 9.5% from the previous year because of pandemic-related restrictions. That year, the audio-visual and interactive media domain continued to be the largest contributor to this trade, particularly in the broadcasting subdomain.

Interprovincial and territorial trade of sport products totalled $624.0 million in 2020, down 51.7% from 2019. The governance, funding and professional support subdomain and the organized sport subdomain were significantly affected by pandemic-related restrictions.

Interprovincial and territorial trade (exports and imports) of culture and sport products is estimated using the latest supply and use tables, which are for the 2020 reference year.

Products

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 (Catalogue number13-605-X) is available.

The User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (Catalogue number13-606-G) is available.

The Methodological Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (Catalogue number13-607-X) is available.

Contact information

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