Here’s a theme that has run through the background of my 29-or-so years of arts research: Are the arts elitist?
I’ll examine this question using data on consumer spending on the arts, culture, and heritage in Canada in 2023. More specifically, I’ll look at three possible elements of “elitism”: income (this week’s article), age (a subsequent article), and urban / rural residence (later still).
Today I’ll analyze how much is spent on the arts and culture by households in different income ranges. I’ll compare their spending with benchmark averages from a previous article: $531 per household on artworks and arts participation items, representing 0.7% of consumer spending (after taxes, pension contributions, and gifts are excluded), as well as $1,623 per household on cultural goods and services, representing 2.1% of consumer spending.
I’ll also analyze data related to another age-old question: are cars elitist?
Each of the two sets of indicators in this article ($ spent per household and % of household spending) tells us something. If I had to rely on just one, I’d probably choose the spending percentage, simply because it places the spending levels in the context of how much money each group of Canadians has to spend.
My category of “artworks and arts participation” includes six items: 1) works of art, carvings, and other decorative ware; 2) books; 3) tickets to live performances; 4) movie tickets; 5) admissions to museums, zoos, and other heritage sites; and 6) art and craft materials. The 19 cultural goods and services include these six items, plus 13 others, all of which are listed at the end of this article. Spending details for individual items that are included in arts spending and cultural spending are not provided in today’s article, due to space and time limitations.
Given the limitations of Statistics Canada’s Survey of Household Spending, I would consider the analysis to be a limited but reasonable approximation of consumer spending on the arts. I would consider the broader estimate of spending on culture (including the arts, culture, and heritage) to be a less-limited approximation, but still imperfect. My categories only include those spending items that are available in the dataset, not everything that one might want to include in arts spending or cultural spending. More details on the survey’s methods and limitations are at the notes at the end of the article.
Context: differences in overall consumption and spending on cars by household income group
I’m using the term “income group” to describe what Statistics Canada calls “income quintiles”. Quintiles are equally sized groups of households along the spectrum of household income. Each group contains as close as possible to 20% of households. For example, the lowest income group contains the 20% of households with the lowest household incomes. (The dataset doesn’t provide the income ranges for these quintiles, but the first graph below shows average spending for each quintile.)
Before examining spending on the arts and culture, here is a graph of average spending per household on everything (except for taxes, pension contributions, and gifts). The highest income households in Canada spend three times as much as the lowest income households (over $123,000 vs. roughly $40,000).
Are cars elitist?
For further context, I’ll examine spending on cars by income group to examine whether cars could be considered an elitist item. The following graph shows that the highest income households spend roughly four times more per year on vehicle purchases than the lowest income households (average spending of $6,870 and $1,650).
My final context graph examines spending on cars as a percentage of total household spending. This is the second key indicator examined throughout this article: percentage of consumer spending on specific goods and services. The graph shows that households in the top two income groups allocate more of their overall spending to cars than households in lower income groups.
Spending on the arts, culture, and heritage by income group
Cultural spending, in dollar terms, increases with income
As shown in the following graph, consumer spending on the arts, culture, and heritage clearly increases with income. The highest income group spends more than double, on average, than the lowest income group ($2,420 vs. $1,050).
As a percentage of total spending, cultural spending is highest for the lowest income group
The second graph shows that, as a percentage of overall household spending, it is actually the lowest income group that spends much more on the arts, culture, and heritage (2.6% of household budgets) than any other income group (2.0% to 2.2%).
Arts spending by income group
Spending on artworks and arts participation, in dollar terms, increases strongly with income
The next graph shows that consumer spending on artworks and arts participation increases significantly with income. The highest income group spends more than four times as much, on average, than the lowest income group ($970 vs. $230).
Similar percentages of budgets spent on artworks and arts participation
As a percentage of overall household spending, all income groups spend roughly similar amounts on artworks and arts participation (0.6% to 0.8%), as shown in the final graph.
The above analysis provides evidence that, as a percentage of total spending, there is only a small difference in arts spending between the lowest and highest income groups. The difference in arts spending is comparable to the difference in spending on cars.
The differences in arts spending are easily understandable: It would not be surprising for lower income households to seek out free or lower cost arts activities (and therefore spend less money, while still participating in the arts). Also, it would be very surprising for lower income households to buy expensive artworks for their residences.
As I indicate in the notes, the data do not cover all types of arts participation. Free activities, by definition, are excluded from the survey on spending.
The broader calculation in this article (spending on culture) is shown to be most significant for the lowest income households, as a percentage of total spending.
The arts and culture appear to be a spending priority for all groups of Canadians.
Notes about the survey
Data source
Statistics Canada. Table 11-10-0222-01, Household spending, Canada, regions and provinces, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110022201.
What is included in cultural spending?
After a close examination of hundreds of line items available in the Survey of Household Spending dataset, I retained 19 items as “cultural spending” and grouped them into the five categories, which are listed in descending order of spending in Canada in 2023. (The individual items within each group are also listed in descending order of spending in Canada.)
1) Home entertainment
TV services and satellite radio services (including installation, service, and pay TV charges, but excluding streaming services)
Televisions
Audio equipment and home theatre systems
Video game systems and accessories (excluding for computers)
Pre-recorded media, music downloads, and blank audio and video media
DVD players, Blu-Ray players, and other video equipment and accessories
2) Cultural events
Live performing arts
Movie theatres
Admission fees to museums, zoos, and other sites
3) Reading material
Books and e-books (excluding school books)
Services related to reading materials (e.g., photocopying, library fees)
Magazines and periodicals
Maps, sheet music, and other printed matter
Newspapers
E-book readers
4) Visual arts and art supplies
Works of art, carvings and other decorative ware
Art and craft materials
5) Photographic services and equipment:
Photographic services
Camcorders, cameras, parts, accessories, and related equipment
Partial and missing data
For some line items, the data were either partially or entirely missing for some income groups. To counter this lack of reliable data, I produced initial estimates of cultural spending and arts spending based on line items with complete data. I then estimated overall cultural spending and overall arts spending based on the percentage differences of each group (using spending items with complete data) with the average spending for all Canadians. Spending details were missing for 9% of arts spending and 16% of cultural spending.
Survey methods
The Survey of Household Spending (SHS) is a bi-annual questionnaire on the spending habits of individual Canadians. Regarding this survey, Statistics Canada notes that:
“The sample for the 2023 SHS consists of 36,320 households across the 10 provinces”.
Since 2010, “the SHS data have been collected using both a questionnaire and an expenditure diary. The questionnaire is generally used to collect expenditures for more expensive and less frequently purchased goods and services. The diary is used to collect expenditures for smaller, less valuable items and those purchased more frequently. These expenditures may be more difficult to recall.”
The questionnaire portion was self-completed via electronic means, while the “diary was sent to respondents by mail”.
The dataset for 2023 was released in May of 2025.
Survey exclusions and limitations
Because it is a broad survey of overall spending habits, the Survey of Household Spending does not provide information about some types of cultural spending. For example:
Musical instruments, parts, and accessories
Arts courses
Tuition fees for arts-related post-secondary programs
Textbooks (which the survey includes with other school supplies)
In addition, only a rough estimate of spending on live performing arts can be gleaned from the dataset. Live performing arts are grouped in a line item that includes live sports. I estimated each of these two components to provide a rough estimate of spending on live performances. (Here’s how: I used a 52% portion for the performing arts, based on the most recent revenue estimates from another dataset, Supply and Use Tables. However, these revenue estimates have fluctuated over time, and a 52% portion may be a fairly conservative estimate for live performances.)
The dataset examines cultural spending, not all types of participation in cultural activities. Free cultural activities, by definition, are excluded from the data source.