Arts, Culture & Economic Prosperity

Arts, Culture & Economic Prosperity: Greater Philadelphia is an economic and social impact study of the Greater Philadelphia region’s nonprofit arts and culture industry. More than 500 arts and culture organizations participated in the research and over 1,000 individuals completed the Americans for the Arts and Economic Prosperity (AEP) survey while attending a performance, event, exhibit or while visiting a cultural event or facility in the Greater Philadelphia Region during the period from May 2022 through June 2023. Greater Philadelphia data represents the five-county region (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia). 

Highlights of the report include:

• Southeastern Pennsylvania’s cultural organizations and their audiences have a combined economic impact of $3.3 Billion. This includes: 
  • $1.9B in direct expenditures by organizations and their audiences 
  • $1.4B in indirect and induced economic impact 
• Arts and culture return $1.4 Billion in household income to Southeastern Pennsylvania residents. 
• The arts have a remarkable return on investment and generate $429 million in tax revenue at the local, state, and federal levels. 
• The typical event attendee in Greater Philadelphia spends $49.19 per person per event, not including the cost of admission. 
  • This is $5 more than the average spend reported from Agenda: Prosperity, published in 2017, when adjusted for inflation. 
• 13.5 million people attended in-person cultural sites and events in fiscal year 2022. 
  • PA CultureCheck, another recent study released by the Cultural Alliance and PA Humanities, found that attendance largely remained below pre-pandemic levels during the fiscal year 2022. Only 32% of the region’s arts and culture organizations reported attendance levels at or above 2019 levels.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

Watch a webinar presented by Kristen Vinh, Director of Research and Data

Research Partners

Thank you to PA Humanities for assistance with additional analysis on Arts, Culture & Economic Prosperity: Greater Philadelphia.

Read the Press Release here.

Customized Impact Reports

On April 30, we will be releasing the newest edition of our Prosperity Economic Impact Report. Collecting data is crucial to the Cultural Alliance's advocacy efforts; elected officials and civic leaders need to be able to see the returns on their public and private investments in arts and culture.  

In addition to the region-wide and city-level reports, the Cultural Alliance can also create customized economic-impact reports for specific cultural organizations. These individualized reports provide key economic indicators such as total economic impact, direct and indirect spending, resident household income, and tax revenue for each organization.

The data from the last Prosperity report is now over five years old, and we are eager to share the new aggregate findings with our community this spring. A customized Prosperity report is a powerful tool to quantify your organization's specific economic impact to key stakeholders like your board, donors, audiences, and others. 

Organizations must be in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia counties to receive a report. Reports will be delivered starting May 2024.

ORDER YOUR REPORT

This year, we’re offering a variety of custom impact reports to suit your organization’s needs.