August 19, 2015
Special issue of the latest Hill Strategies’ Arts Research Monitor takes an extended look at data from the 2010 Provincial and Territorial Culture Satellite Account, a landmark dataset regarding the direct economic and employment impacts of culture in Canada, the provinces, and the territories. View full report here.
In Ontario the direct contribution of culture industries to GDP was $23.8 billion in 2010, which represents 4.0% of provincial GDP. The value added of culture industries in Ontario, as a proportion of total provincial GDP, is well above the national average (3.4%). Culture industries in Ontario represent 44.7% of the national GDP of culture industries. The largest contributors to the GDP of culture industries in Ontario in 2010 were visual and applied arts ($6.2 billion), audiovisual and interactive media ($5.9 billion), and written and published works ($4.8 billion).
In 2010, there were 301,100 jobs directly related to culture industries in Ontario, or 4.5% of total employment. This percentage is tied with Quebec for the highest among the provinces, well above the national average (4.1%). The Ontario jobs total represents 42.6% of nationwide employment in culture industries.
In Ontario, the GDP of culture industries is larger than the value added of agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting ($4.8 billion), mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction ($6.2 billion), accommodation and food services ($10.8 billion), utilities ($11.4 billion), and transportation and warehousing ($21.5 billion). However, the value added of culture is less than that of retail trade ($29.5 billion) and construction ($37.4 billion).
The Culture Satellite Account also provides an estimate of the GDP of sports industries in 2010 ($2.3 billion, or 0.4% of the province’s GDP). The value added of culture ($23.8 billion) is ten times larger than the sports estimate.