U.S. Census Bureau

U.S. Department of Commerce News
        EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, JUNE 7, 1999 (MONDAY)

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Barbara Tinari/Tara Swanson
301-457-2689

      Census Bureau Issues First State Report, Covering Wyoming, on
                Arts, Entertainment and Recreation Industries
                       from the 1997 Economic Census

  The Commerce Department's Census Bureau today released the first in a
series of state reports on the Arts, Entertainment and Recreation sector
of the economy from the 1997 Economic Census.

  The report, 1997 Economic Census, Geographic Area Series, Arts, 
Entertainment and Recreation: Wyoming, released on the Internet, presents 
separate data for firms subject to, and exempt from, federal income taxes.
It provides metropolitan area, county and place data for taxable firms, as
well as metropolitan area data for tax-exempt firms. Reports covering this
sector for the remaining states will follow throughout 1999.

  Among the report's findings for 1997:

  -  Amusement, gambling and recreation industries accounted for the
     bulk of receipts for taxable firms in the arts, entertainment and
     recreation sector, comprising $74.5 million of the sector's total of
     $93.3 million. These industries, which also accounted for most of the
     locations (215 of 262) and workers (1,965 of 2,108), include
     amusement parks and arcades; lottery ticket sales agents (except
     retail stores), bingo parlors, bookmakers and other betting
     operations; golf courses and country clubs; skiing facilities; and
     bowling centers.

  -  Teton County contributed almost half of Wyoming's receipts by
     taxable amusement, gambling and recreation firms, with
     $33.6 million.

  -  Promoters of performing arts, sports and similar events, a new
     industrial classification, had receipts of $8.2 million (taxable
     firms only).

  -  The state's tax-exempt arts, entertainment and recreation firms
     operated out of 76 locations, generated $26.3 million in revenues and
     employed 629 workers. Museums contributed more than 40 percent of
     their revenues ($11.3 million) and almost one-third of the workers
     (199).

  The 1997 Economic Census marks the premiere of a new classification
system called the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS),
which replaces the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system begun
60 years ago.

  "The United States developed the system jointly with Canada and Mexico,
making it much easier to compare data with our North American Free Trade
Agreement partners," said Frederick Knickerbocker, the Census Bureau's
associate director for economic programs. "It is also much easier to
update, so that economic data can keep pace with the nation's changing
economy."

  The Arts, Entertainment and Recreation sector is new under NAICS. Most
of the constituent industries under the SIC were classified under the
major industry groups of either the "Amusement and Recreation Services,
Except Motion Pictures and Museums" or "Museums, Art Galleries and
Botanical and Zoological Gardens."

  Data compiled for the Arts, Entertainment and Recreation sector are
subject to nonsampling errors. Nonsampling errors can be attributed to
many sources: inability to identify all cases in the actual universe;
definition and classification difficulties; differences in the
interpretation of questions; errors in recording or coding the data
obtained; and other errors of collection, response, coverage, processing
and estimation for missing or misreported data.

                               -X-

The U.S. Census Bureau, pre-eminent collector and disseminator of timely,
relevant and quality data about the people and the economy of the United
States, conducts a population and housing census every 10 years, an
economic census every five years and more than 100 demographic and
economic surveys every year, all of them evolving from the first census in
1790.