Who’s winning the race between religion and recreation?
Comparison of Religion and Recreation GDP Contributions (June 1, 2023)
The 1990s. It was a time of reckoning for much of western society. The 1970s brought us the generation of love (Hippies), which seemed to turn 180 degrees in the 1980s to become the generation of “looking out for #1” (Yuppies). The bulge of baby boomers moving into their high-consumption years resulted in a period of high inflation not seen in many decades. The 1990’s brought on a new Generation (Xers), many of whom had it worse off than their parents and became disillusioned. Their music genre was ‘grunge’, which focused to a degree on angst and frustration. It was a noticeable turn from the upbeat ‘new wave’ music of the 1980s.
It was in this era (specifically 1997) that two juggernauts of Canadian past-time entered a race: Religion and Recreation. It was to be a marathon, but both were in healthy shape and many predicted it might be a close race. Religion was the odds-on favourite, as it already had a 134 ‘point’ lead. But Recreation was younger and fit, and many believed Religion may no longer be in peak physical fitness. The betting was close.
The Recreation betters were soon to be seen as prescient as Religion lumbered forward in a lanky trot. It never lost ground but its progress was plodding. However, Recreation came out strong. It sprinted quickly and shortened the initial gap with every lap (year). But could it keep up this pace? Recreation did so and was neck to neck with Religion midway in the race (2001). However, Religion was showing its age and couldn’t keep up. A few laps (years) later, Recreation had a commanding lead. There was no looking back, and when Recreation crossed the finish line (2008) it won by a large margin (846).
The above is just a light-hearted play on the comparative growth patterns in the Canadian nonprofit sectors of religion and culture & recreation over the decade beginning 1997. The table below provides annual Gross Domestic Product contributions of these two sectors, a widely-used measure of economic growth. Basically, it's the amount of spending done by an entity (e.g., country, sector) on goods and services. In our case, it represents as good a measure as any as to the relative size and financial contribution to the economy by the two sectors. (This data was downloaded from the Government of Canada’s Open Government Portal.)
