National culture indicators, second and third quarters 2025
Released: 2026-01-13
Third quarter 2025
-0.6% 
(quarterly change)
657,990 jobs
Third quarter 2025
-0.1%
(quarterly change)
Third quarter 2025
0.2% 
(quarterly change)
102,616 jobs
Third quarter 2025
0.6%
(quarterly change)
Real gross domestic product (GDP) for the culture and sport sectors in Canada decreased by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2025. This was the fifth consecutive quarterly decline in these sectors of the economy and followed a decline of 0.3% in the second quarter. On a nominal basis, GDP for the culture and sport sectors increased 0.3% in the third quarter, following a 0.4% increase in the previous quarter.
Job growth was essentially flat in both the second and third quarters of 2025, with the total number of jobs edging down by 175 in the second quarter and by 187 in the third quarter of the year. This represented a shift from the previous two quarters, when jobs decreased by 0.6% (-4,332 jobs) in the last quarter of 2024 and by 0.6% (-4,511 jobs) in the first quarter of 2025.
Culture sector faces challenges among goods-producing subdomains
Nominal GDP for the culture sector edged up 0.2% to $16.7 billion in the third quarter of 2025, following a 0.4% increase in the second quarter.
Growth was seen across most culture domains in both the second and third quarters of 2025. The audio-visual and interactive media domain was the largest contributor, growing 0.6% in the second quarter and 0.5% in the third quarter. The associated film and video subdomain rebounded in the second (+1.6%) and third (+2.3%) quarters following three straight quarterly declines. However, growth in the culture sector was hindered by its goods-producing subdomains amidst trade uncertainty over this period, as these subdomains tend to rely more on export markets than services-producing subdomains. In the second quarter, the written and published works domain fell 0.7%, while the visual and applied arts domain declined by 0.6% due to a 2.7% decrease in the associated craft goods subdomain. During the third quarter, the written and published works domain (-0.5%) continued to lose ground, as did the crafts subdomain (-1.1%).
Nominal GDP in the sport sector grew 0.9% during the third quarter of 2025, following a 0.7% growth in the second quarter. Organized sport drove growth in both quarters, with a 2.4% increase in the second quarter followed by a 2.3% increase in the third quarter.
Chart 1
Culture and sport nominal gross domestic product (GDP), quarterly
Culture jobs continue to decline
Total jobs in the culture sector edged down in both quarters, decreasing by 710 jobs (-0.1%) in the second quarter of 2025, followed by a decline of 752 jobs (-0.1%) in the third quarter. This marks five consecutive quarters with fewer culture jobs.
During the second quarter of 2025, the decrease was largest in the visual and applied arts domain (-1,009 jobs; -0.6%), under which the crafts subdomain decreased by 407 jobs (-1.4%). This decline was offset by increases in the audio-visual and interactive media domain (+454 jobs; +0.3%) and the live performance domain (+343 jobs; +0.5%).
For the third quarter of 2025, the decline was driven by a fall of 992 jobs (-1.1%) in the written and published works domain, though both visual and applied arts (-409 jobs; -0.3%) and governance, funding and professional support for culture (-372 jobs; -0.4%) also played a role. Similar to the second quarter, audio-visual and interactive media partly offset these declines, increasing by 1,084 jobs (+0.7%) in the third quarter, when film and video saw the strongest gains in the sector.
Jobs attributable to sport grew by 0.5% (+535 jobs) in the second quarter of 2025, followed by an increase of 0.6% (+565 jobs) in the third quarter. In both quarters, growth was driven by organized sports, which added 686 jobs (+1.8%) in the second quarter, followed by a gain of 428 jobs (+1.1%) in the third quarter.
Chart 2
Change in jobs by culture domain, third quarter of 2025
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 (PTCI).
Quarterly Trade in Culture and Sport indicators are available upon request.
Revisions
With this release, data for the second and third quarters of 2025 are being released for the first time. Alongside this, data for the first quarter of 2025 were revised. See the Revisions section under the PTCI for more information.
Data
Data are available for gross domestic product (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 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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