Alberta’s not-for-profit museums recorded 4,888,122 in-person visits and 10,759,826 online visits in 2023. The same institutions reported 117,588 members, 5,996 volunteers and total revenue of $237.045 million. These figures come from the Government of Canada Survey of Heritage Institutions: 2025, with the activity figures measured for 2023 unless stated otherwise.
Alberta museums statistics at a glance
- Attendance and digital reach
- Membership, research and exhibitions
- Workforce and volunteer capacity
- Revenue and expenditures
- Education and public programming
- Partnerships, outreach and facilities
The survey scope is important: the statistics describe Alberta not-for-profit museums. They are not a count of every museum visit, employee or dollar associated with all museums in the province. The 2025 building figure is a separate measurement year and should not be read as a 2023 operating result.
Attendance and digital reach
In-person activity remained substantial in 2023. Alberta not-for-profit museums recorded 4,888,122 in-person visits. Their online presence was larger by the survey’s visit measure, with 10,759,826 online visits. These are separate reported totals, so they should not be combined as unique people or interpreted as a single audience count.
School engagement accounted for 9,602 hosted school groups. Programs tailored to the general public attracted 717,004 in-person visitors and 32,588 online virtual visitors. Educator and school-curriculum programs attracted another 38,130 in-person visitors and 7,535 online virtual visitors.
The figures show several ways Alberta museums connect with audiences: general visits, online activity, organized school groups and program-specific participation. The source does not provide a deduplicated audience total, so the categories may represent overlapping visits or participants.
Membership, research and exhibitions
Membership was reported at 117,588 in 2023. Museums also received 10,450 research requests, indicating that their role extended beyond visitor-facing activity to information access and historical research.
Exhibition activity covered both long-term displays and new or shared work. Alberta not-for-profit museums maintained 2,028 permanent exhibitions, created 748 exhibitions and circulated 149 exhibitions. They also hosted 196 online exhibitions.
| Exhibition measure | Reported 2023 total |
|---|---|
| Permanent exhibitions maintained | 2,028 |
| Exhibitions created | 748 |
| Exhibitions circulated | 149 |
| Online exhibitions hosted | 196 |
These measures describe different activities rather than stages in one production pipeline. For example, the number of exhibitions created cannot be subtracted from permanent exhibitions to estimate a change in inventory because the survey does not define the relationship between those categories.
Workforce and volunteer capacity
Alberta not-for-profit museums employed 891 full-time employees and 1,504 part-time employees in 2023. They also used 144 contract workers. Alongside paid staff, museums reported 5,996 volunteers who worked 395,898 hours.
The volunteer total and hours illustrate the scale of unpaid participation, while the staffing figures identify the paid workforce categories reported by the survey. The source does not state whether employees or contract workers were counted as full-time equivalents, so these totals should not be converted into a single headcount or staffing ratio.
Volunteer contributions were recorded in hours rather than a monetary valuation. The survey therefore supports reporting the 395,898-hour total, but not assigning an invented dollar value to that work. It also does not support calculating average hours per volunteer without making an additional arithmetic comparison that could obscure differences in participation.
Revenue and expenditures
Total revenue for Alberta not-for-profit museums was $237.045 million in 2023. The reported components included $149.964 million in unearned revenue and $87.082 million in earned revenue. Total expenditures were $176.981 million.
Selected expenditure and cost measures were as follows:
| Financial measure | 2023 amount |
|---|---|
| Total revenue | $237.045 million |
| Unearned revenue | $149.964 million |
| Earned revenue | $87.082 million |
| Total expenditures | $176.981 million |
| Compensation wages and administration | $80.689 million |
| Occupancy costs | $12.164 million |
| Purchased supplies costs | $18.089 million |
| Amortization of capital assets | $22.181 million |
Other reported costs included $3.604 million for advertising and promotion, $1.139 million for travel and vehicles, and $4.553 million in interest and bank charges. The fair market value of donated goods to charitable activities was $2.119 million.
The survey labels unearned and earned revenue separately, so those labels should be retained when discussing the figures. Likewise, amortization is a reported accounting cost and should not be treated as the same type of cash payment as travel, supplies or occupancy. The reported total revenue and total expenditures are survey totals for the Alberta not-for-profit museum population, not a financial statement for one museum.
Education and public programming
Programming reached a range of ages and interests. Programs tailored to children aged 12 and under were offered by 55% of Alberta not-for-profit museums, while 55% also offered programming for youth aged 13 to 17. Adult programming for ages 18 to 59 was offered by 57%, and senior programming for ages 60 and over by 59%.
School and educator alignment was less uniform across age groups. Programming tailored to educator and school curricula was offered by 48% of museums for children aged 12 and under, 31% for youth aged 13 to 17, 5% for adults aged 18 to 59 and 3% for seniors aged 60 and over.
| Programming category | Share of museums in 2023 |
|---|---|
| Field trips | 41% |
| Children aged 12 and under | 55% |
| Youth aged 13–17 | 55% |
| Adults aged 18–59 | 57% |
| Seniors aged 60 and over | 59% |
| Curriculum: children aged 12 and under | 48% |
| Curriculum: youth aged 13–17 | 31% |
Among specific formats, field trips were offered by 41% of museums. Cultural workshops on traditional knowledge and skills were offered by 36%, craft-making programs or workshops by 33%, and painting, sculpting or sketching programming by 21%. Science programs, workshops or labs were offered by 16%.
The survey also recorded participation in educator and curriculum programs: 38,130 in-person visitors and 7,535 online virtual visitors. Those attendance measures are program-specific and should not be added to all museum visits or school-group counts as though they represented entirely separate people.
Partnerships, outreach and facilities
Community and institutional relationships were common in 2023. Partnerships or networking with community associations were reported by 63% of Alberta not-for-profit museums, the same share that reported partnerships or networking with other museums or heritage institutions. Academic-institution partnerships or networking were reported by 43%, as were relationships with tourism organizations. Businesses or commercial enterprises were reported at 28%.
Museums also reported several forms of community outreach. Outreach to help document collections, artefacts or records was undertaken by 43% of museums. The same 43% reported partnerships or networking with academic institutions, although these are different survey measures and should not be treated as equivalent activities.
Outreach to enhance public and educator program development was undertaken by 44%, and outreach to create learning experiences for served communities was also 44%. Outreach exploring engagement with wider audiences was reported by 55%. Outreach to introduce new voices or reinterpret exhibits, collections, artefacts or records was undertaken by 32%, while co-created exhibit development was reported by 31%.
Community events or festivals celebrating diverse cultural heritage were hosted by 63% of museums. Together, these figures cover partnership, outreach and event measures; they do not establish that the same museums participated in every activity.
The available facility measure is from 2025 rather than 2023. In 2025, 4% of Alberta not-for-profit museums rated their buildings or capital infrastructure as poor, meaning approaching end of service life. This is a reported assessment for that measurement year, not a forecast of future building conditions and not evidence that the remaining museums had identical facility quality.
Reading the Alberta museum figures
The 2023 results describe a sector combining large reported digital reach with millions of in-person visits, extensive volunteer participation, research services, exhibition production and varied educational programming. They also show a financial picture with $237.045 million in total revenue and $176.981 million in total expenditures, alongside detailed cost categories and donated-goods valuation.
For comparisons over time, the measurement year and survey population should be kept constant. The 2025 infrastructure result should remain separate from the 2023 attendance, workforce, finance and programming figures. The source also presents visits, members, school groups, visitors and volunteers as distinct measures; without a method for identifying overlap, they should not be combined into a single estimate of people served.
All figures in this article are reported by the Government of Canada Survey of Heritage Institutions: 2025. The survey’s Alberta results refer to not-for-profit museums, and legacy figures have not been independently re-verified here.