Culture and GDP in NB: 2021 data

Below is an analysis of the latest data on culture and GDP in New Brunswick. The problem with data such as this is that is can end up raising more questions than answers. For example, should we be looking at GDP per capita or culture GDP as a share of the total GDP? I opted for share of total GDP.

On a culture product basis, the New Brunswick economic generated $578 million in GDP in 2021, or 38% less than the country overall relative to total GDP. We rank 7th out of 10 provinces and there has been a 4% rise in the GDP contribution between 20219-2021.

I have included a “percentage of total cultural GDP” column to show relative impact. For example, New Brunswick generates much more GDP from natural heritage than the country overall but it only represents less than 1% of total culture GDP.

New Brunswick still ranks low for performing arts GDP as well as visual and applied arts relative to the country overall. As I have pointed out before, we generate very little GDP from advertising - 73% less than the country overall and 8th out of 10 provinces. I know people love to tell me this is a small province issue (eg. Ontario generates 5.5 times as much GDP from advertising) but Nova Scotia generates 60% more than NB on a relative basis.

Who knows now that Brunswick News has been sold off but as of 2021, the GDP contribution from newspapers was only 13% below the country overall. The film and video sector has the distinction of having the largest gap with the country overall. The sector here generates 88% less relative GDP compared to the country overall. This is in large part a consequence of government funding. Nova Scotia generates over 5X more GDP from film and video. But they also dole out millions more in subsidies every year.

The only measure where NB ranks #1 in the country is the amount of GDP allocated to governance, funding and professional support to culture. This will be controversial because other data indicates government doles out less cash for culture than most other provinces and yet the amount of GDP allocated to this category is much higher than the country overall.

At this stage, I can’t do a deeper dive on that but it certainly is an outlier…