In 2024, the industries of Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation (or AER) accounted for 1.3% of the St. Louis GDP. We track the performance of nonprofit arts and culture organizations that report revenue and expenses of at least $1,000,000. These organizations tend to employ the most people in the St. Louis nonprofit arts sector outside of the Zoo Museum District with 3,874 employees and 1,385 contractors. These 23 organizations claim 5% of the AER GDP, which amounts to $2 billion for the 2-county region. For context, the state of Missouri did $5.5 billion in AER GDP. That means the 23 STL-based orgs contribute about 2 cents on every dollar of AER to the state GDP.
The industries of Arts, Entertainment and Recreation ranked the fourth worst in GDP for St. Louis, out of 21 categories of industries above agriculture, mining, and, inexplicably, utilities (gas and electric). As discussed previously, we should reconsider this calculation of GDP as not just a measure of economic output or health but the level of development for the arts. It’s good news that the arts have a higher GDP than agriculture or mining in St. Louis, Missouri. It is completely possible that farming and mining are a thing in St. Louis but the area is in trouble if it cannot outperform rocks and dirt. Still, if St. Louis could figure out how to generate more for the arts, it could position the metro area so that it’s in same conversation as some of the great cities of the world. Or at least that’s how they talked about the role of the arts in 1901 St. Louis.
The real curiosity is about the utilities industry. How is AER greater than Ameren and Spire? The answer is probably in another part of the county GDP equation. The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses the following formula to calculate GDP at eh county level:
Ameren appears to benefit from some form of subsidy. Spire does not appear to benefit in the same way.