Last week, I examined data how many Canadian organizations and businesses in the arts, heritage, and entertainment believe that they are in better (or worse) shape now than before the pandemic.

Today, I’ll dig into similar indicators for each province, as well as a measurement of the overall changes in the number of organizations and businesses between since early 2020.

How well or poorly do organizations in each province say that they are doing now, compared with 2019? Are there substantial differences between the provinces in terms of how many organizations say that they are doing worse (or better)?

Like last week, my analysis focuses on data for Statistics Canada’s “arts, entertainment, and recreation” industry group, often the closest approximation of the arts in their datasets. This industry group includes: 1) performing arts, spectator sports, and related industries; 2) heritage institutions; and 3) amusement, gambling, and recreation industries. The cultural industries are excluded (e.g., publishing, motion pictures, sound recording, and broadcasting), because they are grouped into “information and cultural industries”, along with software, telecommunications, and data processing and hosting.

Provincial changes in the number of arts, heritage, and entertainment organizations and businesses

In Canada, there has been a 3% decrease in the number of organizations and businesses with at least one employee in the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry group (between January 2020 and January 2022). This stands in contrast to the 2% increase in businesses and organizations in all sectors of the economy.

The net loss of organizations and businesses varies significantly by province. In fact, there are four provinces in which there has been an increase in the number of organizations and businesses with at least one employee in the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry group.

(Source: My analysis of the raw data from January 2022 in Statistics Canada. Table 33-10-0270-01: Experimental estimates for business openings and closures for Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas, seasonally adjusted.)