Are Black, Asian, and other racialized workers well represented among professional artists, arts leaders, and all cultural workers in Canada?

My analysis shows that there are more than 38,000 racialized artists in Canada, including nearly 25,000 Asian artists and 6,400 Black artists

Aug 08, 2023

Today’s post examines the representation of racialized individuals within 4 broad groupings of occupations: professional artists, arts leaders, workers in cultural occupations, and all Canadian workers, based on data from the 2021 census. The post examines the representation of racialized artists, not their incomes. I am planning to create and release a comparison of median incomes in two weeks.

In this post, I generally use the term racialized to refer to what Statistics Canada has called the visible minority population. According to the Employment Equity Act, visible minority people include “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." National statistics indicate that the racialized population consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Arab, Latin American, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean, and Japanese.

Experiences of discrimination and racism are common in Canada, as is shown in statistics on anti-Black and anti-Indigenous discrimination, race-based harassment and attacks during COVID-19, the recent rise in anti-Asian racism, as well as a summary article on anti-Black racism. However, each racialized person has unique history and experiences.

The statistics in this post cannot capture the full range of those experiences. In fact, to enable a focus on artists – a relatively small population group – it has been necessary to combine some groups of racialized people into summary categories to ensure data reliability and clarity of analysis. The summary categories in this post are: Black people, Asian people, people with multiple racialized identities, people from other racialized groups, and non-racialized people.

Details of the census questions and other notes regarding methods are provided at the end of this post.

All artists, arts leaders, and cultural workers in Canada

There are 202,900 professional artists who reside in Canada, representing 1.0% of the overall labour force. A finer analysis shows that 1 in every 102 Canadian workers is an artist. (A full article related to Canadian artists is available, including a list of the 10 artist occupation groups.)

56,200 Canadians work in five occupation groups that are classified as arts leaders. For more information on the occupation groups included as arts leaders, please see this Canada-wide article. Readers should note that two arts leadership occupations (conductors / composers and producers / directors / choreographers) are also included as artists. As such, the number of arts leaders should not be added to the number of artists.

The broadest analysis relates to the 914,000 Canadians who work in arts, culture, and heritage occupations. These workers represent 4.4% of the Canadian labour force. One in every 23 Canadian workers has a cultural occupation. The 52 occupation groups in this category include the 10 artist occupation groups as well as the 5 arts leadership occupation groups, other cultural occupations (e.g., graphic designers, print operators, editors, translators, architects, and professionals in fundraising, advertising, marketing, and public relations), and heritage occupations (e.g., librarians, curators, and archivists).

Interested in a deeper profile of Black, Asian, or racialized artists? Subscribe now at the sponsor / shareable level (just $750) to get a custom post with intersectional breakdowns (gender, education, age, occupation). Bonus: you’ll receive access to every other subscribers-only post for the next 12 months.

Racialized artists, arts leaders, and cultural workers in Canada

Of Canada’s 202,900 artists, 38,300 are racialized, including:

24,600 Asian artists
6,400 Black artists
2,000 artists with multiple racialized identities
5,300 artists with another racialized identity (including, for example, Arab people, Latino/a/x people)

Similarly, among Canada’s 56,200 arts leaders, 8,800 are racialized, including:

5,400 Asian arts leaders
1,300 Black arts leaders
510 arts leaders with multiple racialized identities
1,500 arts leaders with another racialized identity

Finally, among the 914,000 workers in cultural occupations in Canada, 210,200 are racialized, including:

140,200 Asian cultural workers
26,500 Black cultural workers
9,200 cultural workers with multiple racialized identities
34,400 cultural workers with another racialized identity

Representation of racialized people is lower in the arts and culture than in the overall workforce

The following graph compares the proportion of artists, arts leaders, all cultural workers, and all workers in Canada who are racialized, Black, or Asian, or who have multiple racialized identities or another racialized identity.

There is a clear pattern for all racialized groups: the proportion of workers is highest in the general workforce, followed by the broad cultural workforce, with lower representation of racialized people as artists and arts leaders.
Representation of racialized people is lower among arts leaders than among artists.

For example, all racialized individuals represent 27% of the Canadian labour force, 23% of workers in cultural occupations, 19% of artists, and 16% of arts leaders.

Bar graph of Racialized people as a percentage of artists, arts leaders, workers in cultural occupations, and all workers, Canada, 2021 census. All racialized people: All workers, 27%; Cultural occupations, 23%; Arts leaders, 16%; Artists, 19%. Black people: All workers, 4%; Cultural occupations, 3%; Arts leaders, 2%; Artists, 3%. Asian people: All workers, 18%; Cultural occupations, 15%; Arts leaders, 10%; Artists, 12%. Multiple racialized identities: All workers, 0.8%; Cultural occupations, 1%; Arts leaders, 0.9%; Artists, 1%. Other racialized people: All workers, 4%; Cultural occupations, 4%; Arts leaders, 3%; Artists, 3%. Note: The census counts people in the occupation in which they worked the most hours in early May, 2021. If they did not work that week, they are classified into the occupation of longest duration since January 1, 2020. Source: 2021 census, custom data request by Hill Strategies.

Racialized artists by occupation

The representation of racialized people is higher in many performing arts occupations than in most visual arts occupations or among writers. As depicted in the graph below, the percentage of workers who are racialized includes:

32% of other performers, a grouping that includes buskers, DJs, puppeteers, face painters, and many other occupations, but excludes actors, musicians, dancers, conductors, etc.
23% of actors, comedians, and circus performers
21% of musicians
21% of photographers
19% of dancers
18% of conductors, composers, and arrangers
17% of painters, sculptors, and other visual artists
16% of producers, directors, choreographers, and related occupations
16% of writers
15% of craftspeople

Bar graph of Racialized artists as a percentage of 10 artist occupations, Canada, 2021 census. Craftspeople: 15%. Writers: 16%. Producers, directors & choreographers: 16%. Painters, sculptors & other visual artists: 17%. Conductors, composers & arrangers: 18%. All artists (average): 19%. Dancers: 19%. Photographers: 21%. Musicians: 21%. Actors, comedians & circus performers: 23%. Other performers: 32%. Note: The census counts people in the occupation in which they worked the most hours in early May, 2021. If they did not work that week, they are classified into the occupation of longest duration since January 1, 2020. Source: 2021 census, custom data request by Hill Strategies.

Notes on methods and census questions

The analysis relates to professional workers, but with a very specific concept of professional. Census data on occupations include people who worked more hours as an artist than at any other occupation between May 1 and 8, 2021, plus people who were not in the labour force at that time but had worked more as an artist than at another occupation between January of 2020 and May of 2021. Part-time artists who spent more time at another occupation in May of 2021 would be classified in the other occupation. (The same would be true of workers in arts leadership occupations and all cultural occupations.)

The occupational perspective counts people who work across the economy, as long as they are classified into one of 10 artist occupation groups, 5 arts leadership occupation groups, or 52 cultural occupation groups. Details about the occupation groups included in each of the categories is available in a recent article, which also outlined the methods behind choosing the 52 cultural occupation groups. Another article highlighted some strengths and limitations of the census for counting artists and cultural workers. In this article, no estimates of fewer than 40 people are presented in order to ensure confidentiality and data reliability.

Census respondents, including members of their household, were classified as racialized or not mainly based on their response to the question “Is this person:”, followed by 11 response options containing the most common population groups as well as an area for a brief open-ended response. Respondents could select multiple options for each person in their household.

The 11 readily available options were: White, South Asian (e.g., East Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan), Chinese, Black, Filipino, Arab, Latin American, Southeast Asian (e.g., Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Thai), West Asian (e.g., Iranian, Afghan), Korean, and Japanese. After “White,” population groups were listed on the 2021 Census questionnaire in order of the frequency (largest number) of visible minority counts derived from the 2016 Census.

Respondents selecting any option except for White were counted as racialized people, as were some respondents who wrote in their response.

The challenging context of the pandemic in the spring of 2021 is important to keep in mind when interpreting census data on artists, which were collected in May of 2021. Income data from the census relate to the 2020 calendar year.