The cultural sector employed 4.8 million persons in 2020, according to the Continuous PNAD. The figure represents 5.6% of the employed population in the country. There was a drop of 11.2% compared to 2019, when the sector employed 5.5 million persons, or 5.8% of the total

The proportion of persons with a higher degree working in the cultural sector (30.9%) was higher than the average for the country (22.6%). The proportion of black or brown workers (43.8%) was below the national average (53.5%).

In 2020, the self-employed workers were the main category of the population employed in the cultural sector (41.6% of the total), followed by workers with a formal contract (37.7%) and workers without a formal contract (11.3%).

According to the IBGE Central Register of Enterprises, which covers only the formal sector, culture was responsible for 6.3% of the total number of local branches of the enterprises in the country. The leader was Rio de Janeiro, where 8.0% of the local branches were in the cultural sector. The Federal District (7.7%), São Paulo (7.6%) and Roraima (6.4%) came next. The smallest participations were from Piauí (4.3%), Pará (4.5%) and Tocantins (4.6%).

The monthly average household expenditure with culture, according to 2017-2018 POF, was of R$ 291.18. The biggest expenses with culture were those with telephone, pay TV and Internet services (R$ 172.63).. The contribution of the cultural consumption items (IPCult) in household budgets reached 9.6% of the IPCA.

The value added of the cultural sector reached R$ 256 billion in 2019, an amount equivalent to 9.8% of the wealth generate in the scope od the annual economic surveys of the IBGE - a loss of 1.4 pp ain relation to 2009 (11.2%).

That is what the fifth edition fo the System of Cultural Information and Indicators (SIIC) 2009-2020, gathering information from the different surveys of the IBGE, makes available to the public. For the first time, SIIC brings data from the survey of Areas of Influence of Cities (Regis) on the cultural appeal of the municipalities. São Paulo (SP), Porto Alegre (RS), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Belém (PA) and Belo Horizonte (MG) showed the greatest appeal, attracting residents from other municipalities for their local cultural activities. But the smaller municipalities], such as Balneário Camboriú (SC), Crato (CE), Parintins (AM), Caruaru (PE) or Caldas Novas (GO) have cultural activities as the major or one of the major motivations to attract visitors.

The total of public expenditures alloted to the cultural sector increased from R$ 6.2 billion in 2009 to R$ 9.8 billion in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, a nominal growth of 57.6%. But in this period, the contribution of culture to the expenses of the three governmental spheres (federal, state and municipal) retreated.

The values received by producers by means of tax incentive rose from R$ 980 million in 2009 to R$ 1.489 billion in 2020. The Southeast got 77.7% of the total amount.

The activities in the domain of Equipment and supporting materials generated 67.0% of the cultural value added in 2019, with Audio-visual and Interactive Media (14.8%).

Mobile cell phones were the most used equipment for Internet access (98.6%), followed by computers (46.2%), TVs (32.5%) and tablets (10.9%). In 2019, 88.9% of the Internet users used it to watch videos, including shows, sitcoms and movies, which highlights the importance of the fruition of digital cultural heritage.

Cultural activities had 338.7 thousand organizations and 2 million employed persons

According to the Central Register of Enterprises, in 2019, there were 338.7 thousand formally-constituted organizations in cultural activities. They represented 6.5% of the total organizations and employed 2.0 million persons, of which 1.6 million were salaried persons (3.4% of the total salaried persons in the country). There was participation loss of the sector against 2009, when culture represented 7.8% of the enterprises and 3.5% of the salaried persons.

In 2019,the monthly average salary of cultural activities was R$ 3,595.26, being 21% above the average of CEMPRE (R$ 2,975.74).

Nearly 79.9% of the enterprises related to cultural activities employed up to 4 persons, representing 6.6% of all the salaried persons in the cultural sector. Those organizations lost representativeness in the cultural sector: in 2009, they represented 82.5% of the organizations and employed 7.8% of the salaried persons. Organizations with 500 employed persons and over gathered only 0.1% of the total organizations in 2019 and employed 29.1% of the salaried persons.

Women earned 70.3% of the salary of men in cultural activities

In 2019, in cultural activities (CEMPRE), men (R$ 4,139.00) earned an average monthly salary above that of women (R$ 2,910.00 or  70% of men’s salary) The three cultural domains in which women prevailed were Education and training (68.4%), Visual arts and crafts  (64.2%) and Books and press (53.2%). Men were more present at Audio-visual and interactive media (63.2%), Equipment and supporting materials (62.2%) and Performance and Celebration (57.4%). With a higher degree, there were 32.2% of the salaried employed persons in the cultural sector, whereas for the total of the Central Register of Enterprises, the percentage was 23.1%.

In ten years, Design and creative services gain 31.7 thousand enterprises and grow 91.9%

According to UNESCO, cultural activities were classified in core (eight activities) and transversal (Equipment and supporting materials) The eight core domains in culture, according to UNESCO's classification, account for 66.2% of the organizations and 51.1% of the salaried personnel in culture, and paid, on average, R$ 2,840 per month. On the other hand, transversal activities included the rest of the organizations (33.8%) and of the salaried persons (48.9%), with a higher average compensation (R$ 4,366 per month).

In a decade, equipment and supporting materials had the greatest contribution to the decrease of 10.3% of the number of organizations of culture, with reduction of 40.2 thousand enterprises, influenced by the retail trade specialized in computer equipment and supplies. Conversely, in core cultural activities, the behavior was heterogeneous: Books and press lost 26.7 thousand organizations (-35.2%), whereas Design and creative services gained 31,7 thousand (a high of 91.9%), becoming the domain with the greatest number of organizations (19.6% of the total in culture).

Altogether, women made less money than men. Men earned on average R$ 4,139 per month in 2019, whereas women earned R$ 2,019. Women earned more in just two domains: Cultural and natural heritage and Performance and Celebration.

In the cultural sector, 32.2% of the salaried persons had a higher degree in 2019; in CEMPRE, the figure was 23.1%. By cultural domains, schooling was heterogeneous: just 9.3% of the salaried persons in Visual arts and crafts and 10.0% in Sports and recreation had a higher degree. The rates were bigger in Cultural and natural heritage (42.4%) and in Education and training (41.5%).

In the state of Rio de Janeiro, 8.0% of the local branches were under the cultural sector

Culture was responsible for 6.3% of the total local branches (including, for instance, affiliated institutions) of CEMPRE. In Rio de Janeiro, 8.0% of the local branches were from the cultural sector, the greatest concentration seen, followed by the Federal District (7.7%), São Paulo (7.6%) and Roraima (6.4%). The smallest participations were from Piauí (4.3%), Pará (4.5%) and Tocantins (4.6%).

The employed workers in the cultural sector follow the migration trend of the capitals.  In 2009, 55.6% of the salaried employed persons were in the capitals and, in 2019, the figure reduced to 50.8%. The same happened to the total of activities.

Survival rate is higher in enterprises of education and training

In 2019, business entry and exit rates of the cultural sector were 22.2% and 16.2%], respectively, similar to CEMPRE values. As to survival, from those born from 2008 to 2014, on average, just 38.5% survived after the fifth year of life. In CEMPRE’s total, this rate was 40.5%.

In relation to survival capacity, Education and training stands out with 48.5% of enterprises surviving after the 5th year of life. Conversely, the domain with the lowest survival rate was Sports and recreation (27.8%). The most dynamic cultural domains, i. e., those with the greatest entry and exit rates, in 2019, were Design and creative services (57.3% of entries and 32.8% of exits) and Audio-visual and interactive media (29.0%) and 18.8%).

In 2019, the cultural sector presented 1,621 high-growth enterprises (HGE), i. e., 6.5% of the total HGE, which represents a participation gain over 2009 (5.1%). The cultural domain with the greatest proportion of HGE was Audio-visual and interactive media (9.6%). The HGE are companies with an average growth of the salaried employed persons greater than 20% per year, for a three-year period. In the current study, enterprises with 10 or more salaried persons in the initial year of observation were considered.

Value added of the cultural sector reached R$ 256 billion in 2019

According to IBGE’s long-term surveys of industry, trade and service, the cultural sector enterprises represented 7.5% of the considered universe, with 5.7% of the total employed persons in 2019. In relation to 2009, the cultural sector shrank in those variables representativeness, since the percentages were 8.3% and 6.)%, respectively.

The net revenue of the enterprises classified in the cultural activities in 2019 was of R$ 608 billion, or 6.7% of the total earned by the universe of the surveys, a loss of 1.7 percentage points (pp) compared to 2009 (8.4%). The value added by the cultural activities was of R$ 256 billion in 2019, equivalent to 9.8% of the total wealth generated by the economic sectors considered, with a loss of 1.4 pp in relation to 2009 (11.2%).

Telecommunication (29.6%) goes on as the greatest share of VA in culture

From the perspective of value added, the economic importance of the cultural sector is more concentrates in the transversal cultural domains (Equipment and supporting materials), which generated 67.0% of the total VA of  culture in 2019, increasing its participation by 0.8 pp against 2009. The group, however, comprises economic activities that join together, under thee same CNAE category, activities considered as cultural ones and others, not necessarily associated with culture.

The CNAE class for Wired, wireless and satellite telecommunications was the main VA generator in the cultural sector, with a contribution of 29.6% in 2019.  The second biggest contribution to the culture VA was Software development and licensing (17.4%), which includes creation and maintenance of cell apps and web design.

Audio-visual and interactive media contribute with 14.8% to culture VA

The domain of Audio-visual and interactive media increased 0.6 pp its relevance in the cultural scope, keeping the second biggest share in core cultural domains (14.8% in 2019). In that domain, the highlight is the activity portals, content providers and other Internet information service - including social media and streaming services - with 3.1% of the cultural V in 2019, against a contribution below 0.5% in 2009.

In that same domains, it is relevant the growth of the CNAE class of Other activities of telecommunications , which encompasses domestic and business Internet providers, which generated 3.9% of the cultural VA in 2019, gaining 1.5 pp compared to 2009.

The growth of those two activities was enough to offset the loss of importance in relation to the total cultural VA, seen from 2009 to 2019, of two important activities which belong to that domain: open TV activities (from 5.0% to 3.3%) and pay TV (from 2.8% to 1.2%).

Still concerning core cultural activities, the domains that grew more in importance between 2009-2019 was that of Design and creative services, which increased its relevance by 0.7 pp and reached 6.7% of the cultural VA in 2019.

On the other hand, the most significant loss of importance occurred in the domain Books and press, which participated with 6.0% of the Cultural VA generated in 2019, losing relevance compared to 2009 (8.9%), influenced by losses in the activity of edition and edition related to print, which retreated of 2.9 pp in the participation in the total cultural VA in the considered period.

Public expenditures with culture reach R$ 9.8 billion in 2020

The total of public expenditures alloted to the cultural sector, according to the Secretariat of the National Treasury increased from R$ 6.2 billion in 2009 to R$ 9.8 billion in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, a nominal growth of 57.6%. In the same period the IPCA was nearly 84%

Public expenditures of 2020 do not include R$ 3.0 billion of aid to the cultural sector due to the pandemic (Aldir Blanc Law), transfered by the federal government and states and municipalities. Such resources were counted as special charges and apart from the expenditures in culture.

Between 2009 and 2020, the expenditures of the federal government in culture 17.0%, whereas in the states and municipalities the increases were of

From 2019 to 2020, the states, recipients of 50% of the resources from the Aldir Blanc Law, increased spending on culture by 51.2%, offsetting the effects of the pandemic in the sector.

The municipalities, which received the remaining 50% of the resources, recorded a 9.8% reduction in spending between 2019 and 2020, leading to the conclusion that the reduction in expenditure at this level of government would have been even greater without the emergency aid to the sector.

Culture's share in total expenses falls into the three spheres

Despite the increase in expenditure on culture, there was a drop in the share of culture in the total expenditure of the three spheres of government (from 0.29% in 2009 to 0.21% in 2020).  At the federal level, the drop was from 0.08% in 2009 to 0.04% in 2020, while state governments reduced the share of expenditure from 0.49% to 0.38%.

The municipal sphere, the most relevant in public spending on culture, had the most significant drop, from 1.16% in 2009 to 0.69% in 2020, a reduction of 0.47 pp in the participation of the cultural sector in the total of spending.

Funding received by cultural producers reaches nearly R$1.5 billion in 2020

The values received by producers by means of tax incentive rose from R$ 980 million in 2009 to R$ 1.489 billion in 2020. In 2009, 63.4% of the total came from tax breaks and 36.6% were actually invested by the private sector.  In 2020, 84.11% were from tax breaks and 16.3% were actually invested by the private sector in the promotion of cultural projects.

The amount raised with cultural projects is still centralized in the Southeast (77.7%), despite a 1.0 pp reduction compared to 2009.  The participation of the South region, on the other hand, rose from 10.4% in 2009 to 14 .4% in 2020.  The participation of the Northeast also rose, from 0.6% to 1.2%.  North and Central-West presented reductions, respectively, from 6.6% and 3.7% in 2009 to 4.2% and 2.5% in 2020.

Culture prices make up 9.6% of the IPCA

The Cultural Price Index (IPCult) reflects the behavior, over time, of the prices of a fixed basket of products predominantly used for cultural purposes.  The basket of cultural elements is based on the IPCA.

In the basket based on the 2008-2009 POF, the cultural sub-items of the IPCult totaled 8.7% of the national basket of the IPCA.  In the new basket, as of POF 2017-2018, this weight increased to 9.6%.  Telephone, pay TV and Internet services remain as the main component of the IPCult, with a share of 60.8% of the new basket, and Cultural services come in second (11.9%), followed by Household article (11.3%) and Education products and activities (9.6%).

Brazil's new IPCult basket has 30 cultural sub-items, five less than the previous basket.  Newspaper Subscription, Camera, CD and DVD, DVD Rental and Development and Copy are out.  The sub-items Video game (console), Pay TV, Streaming services and Telephone, TV and Internet Combo, among others, were included in the basket.

Cultural sector employs 5.6% of Brazilian workers

The set of persons employed in the cultural sector based on the Continuous PNAD, which captures formal and informal work, was 4.8 million persons, or 5.6% of the total employed persons in Brazil in 2020.  There was a drop of 11, 2% compared to 2019, when the sector employed 5.5 million persons and represented 5.8% of the total number of workers in the country.  The pandemic caused a drop of 8.7% in the total number of jobs (from 95.0 million to 86.7 million persons).

São Paulo (7.5%), Rio de Janeiro (7.0%) and Rio Grande do Norte (6.7%) had the greatest percentage of persons working in the cultural sector. On the other hand, Tocantins (2.7%), Acre (2.8%), Rondônia (3.1%), Amapá (3.1%) and Roraima (3.1%) had the lowest rates.

In 2020, for the total number of workers, 22,6% had a higher degree, whereas in the cultural sector, they were 30.9%. The participation of women in the cultural sector has increased by 3.1 pp since 2014, reaching 49.5% of employed persons.  In culture, 43.8% of the employed were of black or brown color or race, while, in general, the percentage was 53.5%.  Between 2019 and 2020, there was a drop in the participation of black and brown persons in all sectors, as they were the most affected by the pandemic.

Percentage of employed persons aged 14 years and over, by type of sector, according to selected sociodemographic characteristics - Brazil - 2020
Sociodemographic characteristics	Cultural sector (%)	All sectors (%)
With complete higher education and over	30.9	22.6
Female	49.5	41.7
Black or Brown	43.8	53.5
Self-employed	41.6	25.4
Informal employment	41.2	38.8
Source: IBGE, Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua 2020.

Informal workers are 41.2% of those employed in culture

In 2020, the informality rate in the cultural sector was 41.2%, against a rate of 38.8% for the employed population in the country.  This rate is the proportion of employees and domestic workers without a formal contract, self-employed workers and employers who do not contribute to social security, and contributing family workers in the total employed population.

Self-employed workers, the greatest employment category in the cultural sector, reached 41.6% in 2020, followed by workers in the private sector with a formal contract (37.7%) and without a formal contract (11.3%).

In all sectors, in that same year, the group with the highest number of employed persons was private sector employees with a formal contract (37.6%), followed by self-employed workers (25.4%) and employees in the public sector (13.0%).

In 2020, employees in the private sector without a formal contract and self-employed workers stand out; they lost their relative share in employment, especially in the cultural sector.  The pandemic destroyed more positions in informal than in formal jobs.

Although workers are usually more educated, there were more informal workers in the cultural sector than in al the other sectors together. In 2020, this percentage was 41.2% of the employed persons in the cultural sector and 38.8% of the employed persons in all sectors. The Federation Units with the biggest percentages of informality in the cultural sector in 2020 were Amapá (71.3%), Pará (67.7%) and Maranhão (64.9%), whereas among the lowest were Santa Catarina (24.9%), Rio Grande do Sul (28.4%) and São Paulo (34.9%).

Earnings drop 6.7% between 2014 and 2019 in the cultural sector

The average real monthly earnings from the main job of the population aged 14 and over employed in cultural activities was estimated at R$ 2,564.00 in 2014 and R$ 2,392.00 in 2019, which represents a reduction of 6.7 %, considering inflation.  These values were slightly above the earnings received by the employed population in the total productive activities, R$ 2,352.00 in 2014 and R$ 2,285.00 in 2019 (a 2.8% reduction).

In 2020, as a result of the transition of persons in informal jobs to unemployment, the average earnings of those who remained employed rose.  Earnings increased by 3.6% (R$2,478) in the cultural sector and 3.8% (R$2,372) in all sectors compared to 2019.

The population with more than one job, i. e., having at least one main and one secondary job, was 2.5 million persons in 2020.  The number of persons whose secondary work was within the cultural sector was 157,000 persons, which represented 6.2% of secondary jobs, a higher proportion than in the main job (5.6%).

88.9% of Internet users watch movies and sitcoms on the web

In 2019, before the pandemic, the Internet was accessed by 79.5% of the population aged 10 and over in the country, or 143.7 million persons.  This percentage has been growing annually since the beginning of the series of the Continuous PNAD, in 2016, when 66.1% of the population in the same age group (or 116.3 million persons) accessed the Internet in the 3 months prior to the interview.

In 2019, 88.9% of Internet users in the country used it to watch videos, including shows, sitcoms and movies.  This percentage rose 12.3 pp. compared to 2016.

Cell phones were the most used equipment to access the Internet (98.6%), followed by computers (46.2%), TV sets or other equipment (32.5%) and tablets (10.9%).

Of the 180 million persons aged 10 or over in the country in 2019, 81.4% had a cell phone for personal use, an increase of 4.0 percentage points (pp) compared to 2016.  This percentage was higher among women ( 82.8%) than men (79.9%).  It was also higher among whites (86.3%) than blacks or browns (77.7%).

In addition to cell phones, the use of televisions or other equipment to access the internet increased by 20.8 pp from 2016 to 2019.  On the other hand, accesses by computers (17.0 pp) and by tablets (5.5 pp) dropped considerably in the period.  TVs are becoming more and more important in households, as a multimedia device, with access to streaming and other services.

Household expenditures with culture was R$ 291.18 per month

The average monthly household expenditure with culture, according to 2017-2018 POF, was R$ 291.18, which corresponds to 7.1% of the set of average consumption expenses (R$ 4,116.76).  The monetary part corresponded to R$ 270.53 (92.9% of the cultural expenditure) and the non-monetary part (which includes donations, public access, etc.), R$ 20.65 (7.1%).

In the urban area, the total expenditure on culture was R$ 318.59, 9.4% higher than the average for the country.  In the rural area, it was R$ 119.58, less than half the national average (41.1%).

The Southeast had the highest average monthly household expenditure on culture (R$ 355.24), 22.0% higher than the national average, followed by the Central-West (R$ 341.92).  In the North (R$ 186.87) and Northeast (R$ 187.91), the averages were lower than the national one.

The Northeast had a significant non-monetary share, contributing 10.5% to the monthly family average in the Culture group.  The non-monetary contribution was greater in Sergipe (13%) and Bahia (12%) and the smallest in Roraima (2%), Tocantins and Rio de Janeiro (4%, both).

Households headed by men had greater expenditure on culture

Households headed by men had an average monthly expenditure on culture of R$310.95, while in households headed by women, this expense was R$263.71.

There was also a difference in households whose heads were white (R$ 373.85) and black or brown (R$ 221.14).  However, in relative terms, these values, either by sex or color or race, both corresponded to about 7% of total consumption expenditure.

The expenses with culture was R$87.32 when the household head was uneducated and R$704.18 when the household head had a college degree.

Households spent more on telephones, pay TV and Internet

The biggest expenses with culture were: telephone, pay TV and Internet services (R$ 172.63), cultural activities, leisure and parties (R$ 43.41) and purchase of household appliances (R$ 28.76).  Among non-monetary expenses, the highlights were for professional education and teaching activities (16.6%) and musical instruments and activities (21.8%).

Metropolises have greater cultural appeal

São Paulo (SP), Porto Alegre (RS), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Belém (PA) and Belo Horizonte (MG) are the cities with the greatest attraction of residents from other municipalities for cultural activities in their territory, according to with the survey Areas of Influence of Cities (Regic) 2018).  In the urban hierarchy, these cities offer more goods and services and tend to produce more cultural activities, stimulating the public to travel from their area of influence.

Smaller municipalities have a specific cultural appeal

Unlike metropolises, some smaller municipalities have specific attractions for cultural activities.  Balneário Camboriú (SC), Crato (CE), Parintins (AM), Caruaru (PE) and Caldas Novas (GO), for example, have in these activities the major or one of the major motivations for attracting residents from other places.  Culture is an important part of the role of these municipalities in the urban network as a whole.

5.2% of municipalities have greater cultural appeal than expected

There are 291 municipalities (5.2% of the total) with greater attractiveness for cultural activities than expected, when taking into account the number of persons employed in the formal cultural sector.  Most of them have cultural and tourist dynamics that are considerably higher than the national average.

Among these municipalities, 26% have a diversity of cultural events/actions, with film festivals, cultural tourism with dissemination carried out by the municipality, financing of musical performances, book fairs, carnival parades, theater plays, cultural events and popular traditional festivals, according to the Survey of Basic Municipal Information (MUNIC).

In terms of diversity of cultural events/actions, the highlights are Porto Nacional (TO) and Paraíso do Tocantins (TO) in the North region; Santana do Ipanema (AL), Limoeiro (PE), Ribeira do Pombal (BA) and Pedro II (PI) in the Northeast; Pará de Minas (MG) and Jaguariúna (SP) in the Southeast, and União da Vitória (PR) and Videira (SC) in the South.

About 34% of the most attractive municipalities have a diversity of artistic groups, with the largest share of municipalities in the Northeast, such as Triunfo (PE), Sousa (PB), São Raimundo Nonato (PI), Lagarto (SE), Pedreiras (MA) and Vitória de Santo Antão (PE), and also municipalities in other regions such as Nova Iguaçu (RJ), Joaçaba (SC) and Bragança (PA).

More than half of these municipalities (57%) have cultural facilities, such as museums, theaters or concert halls, cultural centers, cinemas, clubs and cultural points, according to Munic.  Municipalities with this profile have higher urban hierarchy than the previous ones, such as Crato (CE) and Tubarão (SC) and municipalities that participate in large metropolitan areas such as Itapecerica da Serra (SP), Luziânia (GO) and Pedro Leopoldo (MG).  There is an expressive participation of municipalities in the North Region, such as Ariquemes (RO), Cruzeiro do Sul (AC), Tabatinga (AM) and Parintins (AM).

Additionally, there are 60% of these municipalities that are important tourist destinations, classified as "A" and "B" according to the Ministry of Tourism in 2019.  Among them are Salinópolis (PA), Armação dos Búzios (RJ), Embu das Artes (SP) ), Garanhuns (PE), Bom Jesus da Lapa (BA), Diamantina (MG), Balsas (MA), Tamandaré (PE), Chapada dos Guimarães (MT), and Lençóis (BA).