The Ontario Arts Council, in partnership with Nordicity, released Arts Across Ontario, the first-ever complete economic assessment of the province’s arts sector. According to the assessment, Ontario contributes $26.4 billion to Canada’s culture sector’s GDP – which represents 45 percent of the country’s culture sector GDP. The assessment provides essential data about the Ontario culture sector’s economic output and employment by region and provides insight into how the arts help support other industries like tourism, education, hospitality, and transportation.
Initial highlights include:
- Organizations supported by OAC contribute $1 billion annually to Ontario’s GDP (based on organization expenditures)
- For every $1 OAC invests, $25 is generated in other sources of revenue
- Ontario’s culture sector added $26.4 billion to provincial GDP in 2022
- More than 270,528 direct jobs were supported by the culture sector across the province – more than the combined jobs in real estate, auto manufacturing, forestry and mining
As a next step, Arts Across Ontario will also include a regional economic model that will break down Ontario’s culture sector GDP and jobs by region – including the impact by region.
To access the Arts Across Ontario Backgrounder, click here.