Canada’s culture account recorded growth in output and jobs for 2024
A June 2026 release put cultural value added at C$67.1 billion.
News report
Canada’s cultural activities generated C$67.1 billion in nominal gross domestic product in 2024, Statistics Canada reported on June 2, 2026. That was a 4 percent increase from 2023, with cultural output growing across all provinces and territories.
The culture account represented 2.3 percent of total Canadian GDP in the release. Cultural jobs increased 2.1 percent to 696,359, accounting for 3.3 percent of all jobs.
The statistics distinguish culture from sport, even though the two appear in the same publication. Keeping those categories separate preserves the meaning of the C$67.1 billion cultural total and the associated employment figures.
Canada Council for the Arts’ presentation of the data breaks the account into domains including heritage and libraries, audiovisual and interactive media, published works, sound recording, and visual and applied arts. Its tables show how several kinds of cultural production contribute to the national result.
The GDP figures are in current, or nominal, dollars at basic prices, so their increase includes the effect of price changes. Statistics Canada’s product-based approach measures cultural goods and services across the economy, including production outside organisations classified as cultural industries. The release provides a dated economic record of that activity in 2024. Reading the overall contribution with the domain and employment tables shows both its scale and the variety of work included, from heritage services to design and media.
