Statistical insights on the arts

Statistical insights on the arts

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Statistical insights on the arts
Statistical insights on the arts
Artists in rural areas and small towns in each Canadian province
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Census 2021

Artists in rural areas and small towns in each Canadian province

In two provinces, more than half of all artists reside in rural and small communities

Hill Strategies (Kelly Hill)'s avatar
Hill Strategies (Kelly Hill)
Mar 26, 2024
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Statistical insights on the arts
Statistical insights on the arts
Artists in rural areas and small towns in each Canadian province
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Last week, I examined national statistics regarding the 41,500 professional artists who reside in the rural communities and small towns of Canada. As a share of all artists in Canada, 20% reside in rural areas and small towns. The proportion of artists in the labour force of Canada’s rural communities and small towns is 0.7%, below the national average of 1.0%.

Today’s article offers a statistical analysis of rural and small town artists in each province. Once again, the statistics have been produced based on custom data that Hill Strategies requested from Statistics Canada’s 2021 long-form census.

Reminder: “rural areas and small towns” include all communities with less than 30,000 residents, which is a combination of Statistics Canada’s categories for rural communities (defined as areas “with less than 1,000 inhabitants and a population density less than 400 people per square kilometre”) and small towns (my term, referring to “small population centres, with a population between 1,000 and 29,999”), The counts of artists can be combined for these two groupings, but only separate income estimates were requested.

For further information about the occupational classifications and overall national statistics, please see my post from last week, which also provides details of how the estimates are based on the job at which people worked the most hours.


Rural and small town artists by province and territory

Ontario (13,600), Quebec (8,100), and British Columbia (7,900) have the largest number of rural and small town artists among the provinces and territories. However, within each of these provinces, rural and small town artists account for relatively low proportions of all artists.

On the Prairies, there are 6,300 rural and small town artists, including 3,700 in Alberta, 1,300 in Saskatchewan, and 1,200 in Manitoba.

The 5,100 rural and small town artists in Atlantic Canada include 2,500 in Nova Scotia, 1,500 in New Brunswick, 720 in Newfoundland and Labrador, and 380 in Prince Edward Island.

All of the 550 professional artists in the three territories are considered rural or small town residents, because there are no cities over 30,000 population in the territories. The territorial count includes 270 artists in the Yukon, 160 in the Northwest Territories, and 120 in Nunavut.

The remainder of this article includes an analysis of:

  • Artists in rural communities and small towns as a percentage of all artists (comparison between the provinces)

  • The number of artists in rural areas and small towns

  • The largest artist occupation groups in rural communities and small towns

  • Select demographics of artists in rural areas and small towns

  • The incomes of artists in rural areas and small towns

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