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Arts, Culture and Recreation

Attendance at City-produced cultural events has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, many other nonprofit arts organizations are at risk of folding after years of reduced attendance. Library visits and registrations for City-run programs are continuing to improve this year.

10 Issues-Final_Arts, Culture and Recreation (1)
10 Issues-Final_M-Arts, Culture and Recreation

People are returning to City events and programs, but arts-focused community organizations are still struggling.

  • Attendance at City-produced cultural programs and events returned to the two-million mark in 2022 (just 2% shy of 2019 levels).liii
  • Registrations for sports and recreation programs at the City are steadily climbing back up to 2019 levels, when they were more than half a million. Registrations in the first half of 2024 were 19% higher than in 2023, but still 13% below 2019 levels.liv
  • However, 34% of Toronto’s arts, culture, heritage and tourism nonprofits are at a high risk of no longer existing in three years, according to 2024 Ontario Nonprofit Network survey results, higher than other nonprofits in the city (22%).lv

People are using the library more, especially equity-deserving groups.

  • There were 3.5 million library visits in the second quarter of 2024, and while still recovering, it’s the best quarter in five years.lvi
  • A Toronto Public Library survey found that under-represented and equity-deserving groups show higher engagement with library resources than other Torontonians, and those identifying as transgender, non-binary or two-spirit are the most frequent library users.lvii
Arts, Culture and Recreation
Quentin VerCetty (arts)

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ENDNOTES:

Infographics:

1.1 City of Toronto, 2021 Program Summary Economic Development and Culture, https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/964e-EDC-2021-Public-Book.pdf  
1.2 City of Toronto, 2022 Program Summary Economic Development and Culture, https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/8832-Economic-Development-and-Culture-Budget-Note.pdf 
1.3 City of Toronto, 2023 Program Summary Economic Development and Culture, https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/950a-2023-Public-Book-EDC-V1.pdf 
1.4 City of Toronto, 2024 Program Summary Economic Development and Culture, https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/9737-2024-Program-Summary-EDC-V1.pdf Note: There were 2,134,968 attendees in 2019, and 2,082,373 attendees in 2022.  

2. City of Toronto. Toronto’s Dashboard — Sports and Recreation — Registered Program Enrolment (#). https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/toronto-dashboard/ Note: Relative numbers were calculated by comparing quarterly visits in 2024 with the same period in 2019. In the first half of 2024, there were 208,632 registrants, compared to 175,565 in the first half of 2022, and 240,207 in the first half of 2019.

3. City of Toronto. Toronto’s Dashboard — Number of Library Visits. https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/toronto-dashboard/ 

4. Custom data file provided by the Ontario Nonprofit Network. 

Data: