Prince Edward County (Ontario) has one of the highest concentrations of professional artists among Canadian municipalities

300 professional artists reside in the County

Oct 01, 2024

This article offers an analysis of the number, demographics, employment characteristics, and incomes of artists in Prince Edward County, along with a brief summary of workers in arts leadership occupations and all workers 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.

Graphic of key facts about the 300 professional artists in Prince Edward County, Ontario. The County has the highest concentration of artists among Ontario municipalities. 86% of local artists are self-employed. 61% of local artists are women. Median personal income of $33,200 is 30% lower than other local workers. Source: Hill Strategies analysis of 2021 census data at http://www.statsinsights.ca.

The article is made possible with the support of the Corporation of the County of Prince Edward. Hill Strategies Research retained editorial control of the content.

Provincial and national context, plus key definitions

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 the number of arts leadership workers should not be added to the number of cultural workers or the number of artists. This is because the arts leadership occupations are already included as cultural workers, and two leadership occupations are also included as 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, 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).

Further information about each of the categories is available, as are the methods behind choosing the 52 cultural occupation groups. Contextual information about the strengths and limitations of the census for counting artists and cultural workers is also available.

Census data relate to a very specific definition of professional workers: 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 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.

Prince Edward County’s 300 artists represent 2.3% of the local labour force, which is more than double the provincial and national averages (both 1.0%).

The County has a very high concentration of professional artists

The 300 professional artists in Prince Edward County account for 2.3% of the County’s labour force, more than double the provincial and national averages (both 1.0%). The concentration of artists in Prince Edward County is tied with Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake, the locations of two large theatre festivals, for the highest such percentage in Ontario and is tied for the seventh highest among Canadian municipalities.

In Prince Edward County, 1 in every 43 workers is a professional artist, compared with the provincial average of 1 in every 96 workers.

In the census, artists would have to 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. People are counted in the location of their residence, which is not always the same as their work location.

To ensure confidentiality and data reliability, no estimates of fewer than 40 people are presented in this article. With 300 professional artists in the County, only three of the 10 artist occupation groups have more than 40 workers:

70 painters, sculptors & other visual artists
60 producers, directors, choreographers & related occupations
50 writers

There are fewer than 40 artists in Prince Edward County in seven other occupation groups: actors, comedians & circus performers; conductors, composers & arrangers; craftspeople; dancers; musicians; other performers; and photographers.

Demographic and employment characteristics of artists in Prince Edward County

Among the 300 artists in Prince Edward County:

86% are self-employed, more than three times higher than the self-employment rate of all workers in the County (25%) and much higher than the rate among all Ontario artists (69%).
61% are women (including some non-binary people), higher than the proportions of all workers in Prince Edward County (49%) and all Ontario artists (53%).
41% have a bachelor’s degree or higher, much higher than the percentage of all workers in the County (25%) but lower than that of all Ontario artists (48%).
25% have a child at home, lower than the percentages of all workers in the County (35%) and all Ontario artists (30%).
20% are immigrants to Canada, much higher than the proportion of all workers in the County (7%) but lower than that of all Ontario artists (25%).
61% are 55 years of age or older, much higher than the percentages of all workers in the County (39%) and all Ontario artists (28%).
There are fewer than 40 local artists who are Indigenous or members of a racialized group, and the data for them are not presented here for confidentiality and reliability reasons.

Well over half of artists in Prince Edward County are women, and almost nine in ten are self-employed.

Professional artists in Prince Edward County had very low median incomes in 2020

The following statistics and graph relate to median personal income, which includes all sources of income for individuals, such as employment income, net revenue from self-employment, pandemic supports, rental income, investment income, and others.

As shown in the graph, the median personal income of artists in Prince Edward County (from all sources) was $33,200 in 2020, 30% lower than that of all workers in the County ($47,600).

However, the median personal income of artists in the County is somewhat higher than the province-wide median ($29,600), and the income gap relative to other workers is lower in the County (-30%) than in the province as a whole (-41%).

Significant financial sacrifices

Two other income statistics confirm that Prince Edward County’s artists make significant financial sacrifices to practise their craft, especially in 2020, when the median employment income of the County’s artists was just $8,900. This is roughly one-quarter of the median employment income of all workers in the County ($36,400). The median employment income of artists in the County is below the provincial median ($11,200). In addition, artists in Prince Edward County have median household incomes ($82,000) that are 26% lower than other workers in the County ($111,000). The median household income of artists in the County is below the median of all Ontario artists ($92,000).

The financial analysis in this article focuses on median incomes, which are believed to provide a better indication of the typical situation of professional artists than the average (i.e., the “mean”), a statistic that is more strongly affected by a few individuals with very high incomes. It should be kept in mind that the income statistics from the 2021 census relate to the 2020 calendar year, which included many pandemic related lockdowns and significant slowdowns in artistic activity.

Prince Edward County has a very high concentration of cultural workers

The 830 workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations in Prince Edward County account for 6.6% of the 12,600 people in the local labour force, a percentage that is much higher than both the provincial average (4.7%) and the national average (4.4%). One in every 15 workers in the County has a cultural occupation.

The 830 cultural workers in Prince Edward County represent 6.6% of the local labour force, well above the provincial and national averages (4.7% and 4.4%, respectively).

The median income statistics for cultural workers in Prince Edward County in 2020 are:

Employment income of $24,000, 34% lower than the median for all workers in the County ($36,400)
Total personal income of $41,600, 13% less than all workers in the County ($47,600)
Household income of $95,000, 14% less than all workers in the County ($111,000)

100 arts leaders reside in Prince Edward County

The County is home to 100 workers in five occupation groups that are classified as arts leaders, many of whom have the highest-paying arts profession: producers, directors, choreographers & related occupations (of which there are 60 who reside in Prince Edward County). This occupation group, along with conductors, composers & arrangers, is counted both as artists and arts leaders.

To ensure confidentiality and data reliability, no estimates of fewer than 40 people are presented in this article. There are fewer than 40 workers in the County in the other four occupation groups captured as arts leaders: conductors, composers & arrangers; library, archive, museum, and art gallery managers; managers in publishing, motion pictures, broadcasting, and performing arts; and conservators and curators.

In keeping with their senior positions within the cultural sector as well as the strong concentration of producers, directors, and choreographers, arts leaders in Prince Edward County tend to have relatively high median incomes:

Employment income of $53,200, similar to the provincial median of $51,200 (but much higher than the median for all workers in the County: $36,400)
Total personal income of $64,000, higher than the provincial median of $57,600 (and much higher than the median for all workers in the County: $47,600)
Household income of $154,000, higher than the provincial median of $120,000 (and much higher than the median for all workers in the County: $111,000)

As noted above, people are enumerated in the location of their residence, which is not always the same as their work location.