France/ 6.2 Public cultural expenditure  

6.2.1 Aggregated indicators

The public cultural expenditure for 2002 includes:

• national cultural expenditure: 6.2 billion euros (Ministry of Culture and Communication: 2.6 billion euros; and other ministries: 3.6 billion euros); and
• local authority expenditure: municipalities of more than 10000 inhabitants: 4.1 billion euros; inter-municipal cultural expenditure: 0.28 billion euros; départements: 1.13 billion euros; and régions: 0.36 billion euros.

This data does not take account of transfers from one municipality to another (primarily of the régions and départements with the municipalities) and does not make it possible to calculate the total amount of local cultural expenditure (a rough estimate for local cultural expenditure is 5.8 billion euros).

The total public cultural expenditure (state and local authorities) can be estimated at 12 billion euros.

The French population, of 61 million inhabitants (metropolis and overseas), represents a per capita cultural expenditure of 197 euros. This corresponds to 1.2% of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is 16 417 euros. It should be mentioned that the 921 municipalities of 10 000 or more inhabitants (2.5% of the 36 679 municipalities) have a population of 30.9 million inhabitants (half of the total population). In addition, the amount of cultural expenditure by municipalities with less than 10 000 inhabitants is an overall estimate, deduced from the preceding one.

Your Comments on this Chapter?