EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, JUNE 7, 1999 (MONDAY) Public Information Office CB99-103 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-1037 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov 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.