SAA Summary: Provincial and Territorial Cultural Indicators, 2024

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Statistics Canada’s The Daily has released its Provincial and Territorial Cultural Indicators for 2024. The report notes a nationwide gain of 18,000, an increase of 2.3%, and that GDP attributable to culture was up 4% across the country.

The only territory to see a decrease in jobs was the Northwest Territories, while all other provinces and territories saw job growth. Overall, 2024 was a positive year for culture. 

Provincially, Saskatchewan’s GDP attributable to culture grew 3.85%, up to $1.09 billion from $1.04 billion in 2023. As always, GDP attributable to culture is significantly higher than that attributable to sport, which also grew 6.85% to $274 million. The province followed the nationwide trend of growth in both GDP and jobs within the sector. 

The largest growth in the culture sector was in newspapers, which increased by 15.24%; libraries, which increased by 12.5%; and Multi Domain, which increased by 12%. The majority of sectors within arts & culture saw an increase in GDP. 

There were, however, those that did not. Archives held steady, with no change in their overall GDP, while Crafts (2.84%), Periodicals (0.65%), Collected information (0.50%), Art reproduction (0.18%), and Interactive media (0.05%) saw decreases in their GDP. 

In 2024, there were 13,367 jobs in arts & culture in the province, with 409 new jobs created, an increase of 3.16%. Sport saw a higher proportional increase in jobs (4.07%), but that is largely because there were only 3,169 jobs in sport in the province in 2024, so the increase of 124 jobs was more proportionally significant. 

In culture, the largest job gains were in Governance, with an increase of 114 jobs in 2024; Multi-sub domain, under the umbrella of Written and Published Works, saw an increase of 83 jobs, and Education saw an increase of 59 jobs. 

Interestingly, despite having the largest GDP growth, Newspapers lost 64 jobs, or 19.16% of their jobs, from 2023. This is significantly higher than any other cultural field: Periodicals and Collected Information both lost two jobs, and Interactive Media lost one. Only nine sectors saw no losses or gains (Sound recording, Other published works, Books, Art reproductions, Original visual art, Natural heritage, Cultural heritage, Libraries and Archives).

Despite a decrease in GDP, Crafts gained 32 jobs, bringing the total to 1,162. All of the other sectors that saw a decrease in GDP either lost jobs or remained steady. Multi domain, which had the third-highest GDP growth, increased by 7 jobs to 71, while Libraries, with the second-highest GDP growth, saw no change. 

Overall, 2024 was a positive year for cultural indicators in Saskatchewan, with both strong GDP growth and solid job gains.