Most Ottawa artists earn less than a living wage, despite very high education levels
Statistical profile of the 5,800 professional artists in Ottawa
The article offers an analysis of the demographics, employment characteristics, and incomes of artists who reside in the City of Ottawa. The article also provides a brief summary of workers in arts leadership occupations and those in all occupations in the arts, culture, and heritage. The article is based on custom data that Hill Strategies requested from Statistics Canada’s 2021 long-form census.
The occupational perspective in this article 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. Readers should keep in mind that the count of cultural workers includes the counts of artists and arts leaders. As such, the number of artists and arts leaders should not be added to the number of cultural workers.
The article is made possible with the support of Arts Network Ottawa and the Ottawa Arts Council. Hill Strategies Research retained editorial control of the content.
Provincial and national context: Artists, arts leaders, and all cultural workers
The 81,800 professional artists who reside in Ontario account for 40% of the 202,900 artists in Canada. As a percentage of the overall labour force, artists represent 1.0% in both Ontario and Canada. A finer analysis shows that 1 in every 96 Ontario workers and every 102 Canadian workers is an artist. (Articles related to Ontario artists and Canadian artists are available.)
56,200 Canadians, including 23,000 Ontarians, work in five occupation groups that are classified as arts leaders. Ontario accounts for 41% of Canada’s arts leaders, slightly higher than the province’s share of all workers (38%). Readers should note that all arts leadership occupations are included as cultural workers, and two occupations (conductors / composers and producers / directors / choreographers) are also included as artists. As such, the number of arts leadership workers should not be added to the number of cultural workers or artists.
The broadest analysis relates to the 370,000 Ontarians and 914,000 Canadians who work in arts, culture, and heritage occupations. These workers represent 4.7% of Ontario’s labour force and 4.4% of the Canadian labour force. One in every 21 Ontario workers and 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, plus many 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). For a deeper dive on the occupation classifications, please see my articles on the methods behind choosing the 52 cultural occupation groups and the strengths and limitations of the census for counting artists and cultural workers.
In the census, artists must spend more time as artists than in any other occupation to be classified into an artist occupation group. More specifically, occupational data from the census are based on the number of people who worked more hours in an occupation than in any other between May 1 and 8, 2021, plus people who were not in the labour force at that time but had worked more in that occupation than any other between January of 2020 and May of 2021.
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.
5,800 artists in Ottawa
Census data indicate that there are 5,800 professional artists in the City of Ottawa, representing 1.0% of the city’s labour force, which is equal to the provincial and national averages. One in every 101 workers in the city is a professional artist.
Ottawa is home to many writers
Musicians and writers are the two largest artist occupation groups in Ottawa. Relative to other cities, there is a particularly large proportion of professional writers in Ottawa. The 1,200 writers in the city represent 21% of all local artists, the highest such proportion among larger Canadian cities.
From most to least common, the 5,800 professional artists in Ottawa include:
1,300 musicians (22% of the city’s artists)
1,200 writers (21%)
750 producers, directors, choreographers & related occupations (13%)
590 painters, sculptors & other visual artists (10%)
510 photographers (9%)
510 artisans & craftspeople (9%)
360 actors, comedians & circus performers (6%)
280 dancers (5%)
170 other performers (3%)
110 conductors, composers & arrangers (2%)
To ensure confidentiality and data reliability, no estimates of fewer than 40 people are presented in this article.
Ottawa’s artists work throughout the economy. The largest industry sector is arts, entertainment, and recreation, which employs 30% of the city’s artists. This industry sector includes a category for “independent artists, writers, and performers”, which accounts for 21% of artists in Ottawa. Another 7% work directly in performing arts companies (another sub-group of arts, entertainment, and recreation).
Two other industry sectors employ substantial proportions of Ottawa’s artists: educational services (21%) and information and cultural industries (14%).
Many artists work in other sectors of the economy: all other industries (excluding the three largest ones) employ 35% of artists in Ottawa.
More than one-half of artists in Ottawa have incomes below the local living wage
Income data from the census relate to the 2020 calendar year, which included many pandemic related restrictions and significant slowdowns in artistic activity. Because of the challenging context of the pandemic, the focus of this article is on overall personal incomes, with employment and household incomes provided as additional information.
The accompanying graph shows the median personal incomes of artists and all workers in Ottawa, with a comparison to the local living wage. Personal income includes all sources, such as employment income, net revenue from self-employment, pandemic supports, rental income, investment income, and others.
The median personal income of Ottawa’s artists (from all sources) was $29,800 in 2020, 12% below the living wage in Ottawa in 2021 ($33,852) and 49% below the median income of all Ottawa workers ($58,400).
The median captures the point at which one-half of workers earn less and the other half earn more. This means that more than one-half of Ottawa’s artists have personal incomes that are below the local living wage.
The difference in median personal income between artists and other workers in Ottawa (-49%) is significant, and it is larger than the difference in all of Ontario (-41%). However, the median personal income of local artists in 2020 was very close to the median of all artists in Ontario ($29,600), while the median income of all Ottawa workers ($58,400) was higher than that of all workers in Ontario ($50,400).
Estimates of employment income include the work-related earnings of artists from all paid and self-employed positions that they held during the year. In 2020, the median employment income of Ottawa artists was just $12,500, which is roughly one-quarter of the median employment income of all Ottawa workers in the same year ($52,000). However, the median employment income of artists in Ottawa in 2020 was slightly above the provincial average ($11,200).
Household income provides a measure of the family situation of artists. Some Ottawa artists appear to rely on the support of family members to help them make ends meet. In 2020, the median household income of Ottawa artists was $113,000, 18% lower than that of all workers in the city ($137,000) but 15% higher than the median of all artists in Ontario ($98,000).
For the above statistics, median incomes were chosen as the key measurement, because the median should provide a better indication of the situation of a typical artist than the average (i.e., the “mean”), a statistic that is more strongly affected by a few individuals with very high incomes. All income statistics are shown before taxes.
High education levels and self-employment rates
Among the 5,800 artists in Ottawa:
65% are self-employed, more than five times higher than the percentage of all Ottawa workers (12%) but slightly lower than that of all Ontario artists (69%).
53% have a bachelor’s degree or higher, higher than the percentages of all Ottawa workers (47%) and all Ontario artists (48%).
56% are women (including some non-binary people), higher than the proportions of all Ottawa workers (49%) and all Ontario artists (53%).
31% have a child at home, lower than the percentage of all Ottawa workers (41%) but similar to that of all Ontario artists (30%).
30% are 55 years of age or older, higher than the percentage of all workers in Ottawa (22%) but similar to that of all Ontario artists (28%).
3.5% are Indigenous, slightly higher than the percentages of all Ottawa workers (2.5%) and all Ontario artists (2.5%).
21% are members of racialized groups, below the proportion of all Ottawa workers (31%) but similar to that of all Ontario artists (23%).
22% are immigrants to Canada, lower than the percentages of all Ottawa workers (28%) and all Ontario artists (25%).
14% are French speakers (i.e., official language minority), lower than the percentage of all Ottawa workers (20%) but much higher than that of all Ontario artists (5%).
1,500 arts leaders in Ottawa
There are 1,500 Ottawa residents who work in five occupation groups that are classified as arts leaders, with the broad grouping of producers, directors, and choreographers accounting for one-half of them. In Ottawa, there are:
750 producers, directors, choreographers & related occupations (49% of the arts leaders in the city, based on the unrounded numbers)
240 managers in publishing, motion pictures, broadcasting & performing arts (16%)
210 library, archive, museum & art gallery managers (14%)
200 conservators & curators (13%)
110 conductors, composers & arrangers (7%)
Over 31,000 cultural workers
The 31,300 workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations in Ottawa account for 5.4% of the local labour force, which is higher than the provincial average (4.7%) and the national average (4.4%). One in every 19 workers in Ottawa has a cultural occupation.
In 2020, a typical cultural worker in Ottawa had:
Employment income of $51,600, just 1% less than all Ottawa workers ($52,000)
Total personal income of $56,800, 3% less than all workers in the city ($58,400)
Household income of $129,000, 6% less than all workers in the city ($137,000)
