Artists, artists everywhere? New and existing census analysis
A bit of wayfinding and a final reminder about my un-census survey
Readers of this series will probably be aware that I’m currently running a survey of artists and cultural workers, investigating affordability and working conditions in their careers.
If you have not yet completed the survey, please do so now! The survey closes tomorrow, March 6, at midnight PST.
The main goal of the survey is to ask questions for which we do not have answers from any other source, including the census. The survey includes qualitative-style questions related to self-employment, multiple jobs, career length, incomes, residence affordability, work from home, affordability challenges, teaching in the arts, satisfaction with primary occupations, and overall career satisfaction. (I’m keeping a close eye on a question about “would you do it all again”. Interesting results so far.)
Please forward this email to others who might be interested in completing the survey.
Census findings on artists and cultural workers in Canada
The above might be an odd introduction into what we do know from the census, which is the main goal of today’s post. This brief section could be called “things I know from census statistics but (mostly) have not yet published”.
Let’s start with some basic stats. According to census data, there are 202,900 professional artists in Canada, representing 1.0% of all Canadian workers. In Canada, 1 in every 102 workers is an artist.
The prevalence of “gig work” and the often-atypical nature of artists’ workflows can make it challenging for official statistics to count artists as artists. As such, census estimates of the number of artists might be low.
More broadly, there are 914,000 workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations in Canada, or 4.4% of the overall labour force. In other words, 1 in every 23 workers in Canada has a cultural occupation.
Two-thirds of Canadian artists (68%) are self-employed, compared with one-third of all cultural workers (33%) and just one-seventh of all Canadian workers (14%), as shown in the following graph.
Canada’s artists operate at a significant financial disadvantage to other workers. The following graph shows that, in 2020, a typical artist had a total personal income of $30,200, which is 39% lower than all Canada workers ($49,600). A typical cultural worker in Canada had a total personal income of $46,400 in 2020, which is 6% lower than the median income of all Canadian workers.
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.
For more information about the types of artists in Canada as well as the number and concentration of artists in each province, please have a look at two early posts in my census analysis:
Statistical profiles of artists
As a wayfinding exercise, I’ll remind you about the jurisdictions that have a custom post on artists. Thank you to all my sponsors! I couldn’t keep up this work without your support.
Prince Edward Island (forthcoming)
Representation and equity
My census analyses have delved into important issues of representation and equity in the arts, including the first ever statistics on transgender and non-binary artists:
Notes on census methods
Census analysis relates to professional workers, but with a very specific concept of professional. The occupational data 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. No restriction was placed on the industries in which people worked. Many artists and cultural workers are classified as working outside of the arts, heritage, and cultural industries, and they are still counted as artists and cultural workers.
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.