Professional artists by region of Ontario

Plus: Summary analysis of cultural workers by region

This brief article provides a summary of the number of professional artists and cultural workers by region of Ontario, based on custom data that Hill Strategies requested from Statistics Canada’s 2021 long-form census. This article is made possible with the support of the City of London and the Ontario Arts Council. Hill Strategies retained editorial control of the content. Notes regarding methods are provided at the end of the article.

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Context: Provincial and Canadian data

According to census data, there are 81,800 professional artists in Ontario, representing 1.0% of the province’s 7.9 million workers. Presented differently, this means that 1 in every 96 workers in the province is an artist. A full article on Ontario artists and cultural workers is available here, and a similar article for London is available here.

Across Canada, there are 202,900 professional artists, representing 1.0% of the Canadian labour force. In other words, 1 in every 102 Canadian workers is an artist. A summary analysis of all Canadian artists is available here.

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Regions of Ontario

The regions in this article correspond with the Ontario Arts Council’s regions:

Toronto

• City of Toronto

South Central

• Durham Regional Municipality

• Halton Regional Municipality

• Peel Regional Municipality

• York Regional Municipality

Southwest

• Brant County

• Chatham-Kent

• Essex County

• Elgin County

• City of Hamilton

• Haldimand-Norfolk Regional Municipality

• Huron County

• Lambton County

• Middlesex County

• Niagara Regional Municipality

• Oxford County

• Perth County

• Simcoe County

• Waterloo Regional Municipality

• Wellington County

Central

• Bruce County

• Dufferin County

• Grey County

• Haliburton County

• City of Kawartha Lakes

• Muskoka District Municipality

• Northumberland County

• Peterborough County

East

• Frontenac County

• Hastings County

• Lanark County

• Leeds and Grenville United Counties

• Lennox and Addington County

• City of Ottawa

• Prescott and Russell United Counties

• Prince Edward County

• Renfrew County

• Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties

Northeast

• Algoma District

• Cochrane District

• Manitoulin District

• Nipissing District

• Parry Sound District

• City of Greater Sudbury

• Sudbury District

• Timiskaming District

Northwest

• Rainy River District

• Thunder Bay District

Far North

• Kenora District

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Artists by region of Ontario

The City of Toronto is home to 32,300 artists, or 39% of all artists in Ontario. Artists represent 2.0% of all workers in Toronto, double the provincial average. Artists represent 1 in every 50 workers in the city. Toronto’s proportion of each artist occupation is provided in a subsequent section.

There are 49,500 professional artists who reside in other regions of the province, accounting for 61% of the provincial total and 0.8% of the overall labour force outside of Toronto. The regional distribution of these artists follows:

• 16,200 artists reside in the south central region, accounting for 0.7% of all local workers (or 1 in every 137 local workers).

• 16,100 reside in the southwest region, representing 0.8% of all local workers (or 1 in every 124 local workers).

• 9,400 reside in the east region, accounting for 0.9% of all local workers (or 1 in every 111 local workers).

• 5,700 reside in the central region, representing 0.9% of all local workers (or 1 in every 111 local workers).

• 1,600 reside in the northeast region, accounting for 0.6% of all local workers (or 1 in every 173 local workers).

• 500 reside in the northwest region, accounting for 0.6% of all local workers (or 1 in every 176 local workers).

• 100 reside in the far north region, representing 0.3% of all local workers (or 1 in every 317 local workers).

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Demographic similarities and differences by region

Three important characteristics of artists in Ontario are the high proportion of women (53%, higher than the 48% of all Ontario workers), very high educational achievement (48% with a bachelor’s degree or higher, much higher than the 36% of all Ontario workers), and an extremely high self-employment rate (69%, nearly five times higher than the 15% of all Ontario workers).

As shown in the following graphs, each of these characteristics varies by region of the province, which might be at least partly due to the prevalence of different artist occupations by region.

The first graph shows that about two-thirds of artists in the northwest are women, much higher than the Ontario average (53%). Among the eight regions of Ontario, Toronto has the lowest proportion of women artists (49%).

The second graph shows that Toronto has the highest percentage of artists with at least a bachelor’s degree (57%). In all other regions, less than one-half of professional artists have at least a bachelor’s degree.

As shown in the third graph, the self-employment rates of artists are very high in every region of the province, with the lowest self-employment rate being 63% in the northwest. The self-employment rates are extremely high in the far north (85%) and the central region (79%), two predominantly rural areas of the province.

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Regional distribution of each artist occupation

The proportion of Ontario’s artists who reside in Toronto varies considerably by occupation.

Among the 10 artist occupations, artisans and craftspeople are least likely to reside in Toronto: just 19% do so, meaning that 81% reside outside of the provincial capital. The two artist occupation groups that are most likely to reside in Toronto are producers, directors, and choreographers (59%) and actors, comedians, and circus performers (54%).

For each artist occupation, the percentages residing in Toronto are:

• 19% of the 7,300 artisans and craftspeople in Ontario

• 31% of the 8,200 photographers

• 31% of the 4,200 dancers

• 32% of the 15,100 musicians

• 33% of the 2,400 other performers (including DJs, puppeteers, buskers, face painters, and models)

• 34% of the 7,900 painters, sculptors, and other visual artists

• 39% of the 1,700 conductors, composers, and arrangers

• 44% of the 12,800 writers

• 54% of the 7,600 actors, comedians, and circus performers

• 59% of the 14,700 producers, directors, choreographers, and related occupations

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Cultural workers by region

In Ontario, there are 370,000 workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations, representing 4.7% of the province’s overall labour force, above the national average of 4.4%, One in every 21 workers in Ontario has a cultural occupation.

The 52 occupation groups categorized as workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations (or simply “cultural workers”) include the 10 artist occupation groups, other cultural occupations (e.g., graphic designers, print operators, editors, translators, architects, and professionals in fundraising, advertising, marketing, and public relations), as well as heritage occupations (e.g., librarians, curators, and archivists).

The 370,000 cultural workers in the province include:

• 129,200 in Toronto, representing 8.1% of all local workers (or 1 in every 12 local workers). Toronto is home to 35% of the province’s cultural workers, slightly below the region’s share of artists (39%) but well above its share of the provincial labour force (20%)

• 90,900 in the south central region, which represents 4.1% of all local workers (or 1 in every 24 local workers).

• 71,600 in the southwest region, accounting for 3.6% of all local workers (or 1 in every 28 local workers).

• 45,800 in the east region, which represents 4.4% of all local workers (or 1 in every 23 local workers).

• 22,900 in the central region, accounting for 3.6% of all local workers (or 1 in every 28 local workers).

• 7,100 in the northeast region, which represents 2.5% of all local workers (or 1 in every 40 local workers).

• 2,100 in the northwest region, accounting for 2.4% of all local workers (or 1 in every 41 local workers).

• 530 in the far north region, which represents 1.7% of all local workers (or 1 in every 60 local workers).

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Notes on methods

The analysis relates to professional workers, but with a very specific concept of professional. The 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 all occupations in the arts, culture, and heritage.)

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 separate 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.

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.