Changes in the cultural workforce in small municipalities and rural areas
Final part of my series: Local trends in the arts, culture, and heritage workforce between 2013 and 2025
Today’s article provides an analysis of changes in the cultural workforce between 2013 and 2025 for what I’m calling “small municipalities and rural areas”. This label of convenience casts a fairly broad net, because the statistics actually relate to all areas of Canada outside the 31 Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) for which we have reliable data.
In general, these locations are small municipalities and rural areas. However, the data also include 10 CMAs for which the data are not reliable in a majority of the years in the analysis: Belleville-Quinte West, Brantford, Chilliwack, Drummondville, Kamloops, Lethbridge, Nanaimo, Red Deer, Saguenay, and Thunder Bay. Some non-CMA areas might also be an imperfect fit for the label “small municipalities and rural areas”. But I do think that, by and large, the data relate to small municipalities and rural areas.
This is the fifth and final instalment in my series of articles analyzing local statistics on workers in arts, culture, heritage, and some sport occupations. In the first article in this series, I examined the trends for Canada, the 31 CMAs (as a group), and the 6 largest CMAs: Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, and Vancouver. Three weeks ago, I analyzed changes for 7 CMAs with populations between 500,000 and 1 million: Winnipeg, Quebec City, Hamilton, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, London, Halifax, and St. Catharines-Niagara. Two weeks ago, I examined changes for 10 CMAs with populations between 220,000 and 500,000: Abbotsford-Mission, Barrie, Kelowna, Oshawa, Regina, Saskatoon, Sherbrooke, St. John’s, Victoria, and Windsor. Last week, I analyzed changes for 8 CMAs with populations under 200,000 (analyzed individually and as a group). The 8 CMAs are: Fredericton, Greater Sudbury, Guelph, Kingston, Moncton, Peterborough, Saint John, and Trois-Rivières.
The articles are based on publicly available occupation statistics from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). As was the case in my other articles, I have created three-year averages to provide a higher level of statistical reliability and minimize the impact of unusual single year estimates in many CMAs. The data in this article labelled 2025 therefore represent the average for 2023-2025. The earliest data point (labelled 2013) is actually the average for 2011-2013.
Key things to know about the Labour Force Survey
In my opinion, data from the Labour Force Survey are useful but imperfect for analyzing the labour force in the arts, culture, and heritage. I outline many limitations at the end of this article and in even greater detail here.
Because of its relatively small sample size, the Labour Force Survey can only offer reliable local data for a broad category of arts, culture, heritage, and sports workers. The summary data relate to what Statistics Canada calls “occupations in the arts, culture, recreation, and sports, except management”. I will generally call this occupation category “arts, culture, heritage, and sport workers”. Details about the occupation groupings within this category are at the end of this article.
Most of the people in this category (roughly 75%) work in the arts, culture, and heritage (rather than sports and recreation). The category covers approximately 60% of all workers in the arts, culture, and heritage.
The data are available for CMAs, not for municipalities per se.
Given the Labour Force Survey’s limitations, the analysis that follows is relatively simple: I examine whether the number of workers in the selected occupation grouping has increased or decreased over 12 years or so.
26% increase for all of Canada
Between 2013 and 2025, there was a 26% increase in the number of workers in the arts, culture, heritage, and sport in Canada (estimates of 510,000 in 2013 and 641,000 in 2025).
15% increase in small municipalities and rural areas
11.8 million people, or 28% of Canada’s population, reside outside of the 31 CMAs for which we have reliable individual data on workers in the arts, culture, heritage, and sport.
16% of all Canadian workers in the arts, culture, heritage, and sport (104,000 people) reside in these (generally) small municipalities and rural areas, a percentage that is below their share of the population.
Between 2013 and 2025, there was a 15% increase in number of workers in the arts, culture, heritage, and sport in small municipalities and rural areas, which is below the Canadian average (26%). Collectively, small municipalities and rural areas were home to 91,000 workers in this occupation grouping in 2013 and 104,000 in 2025.
As shown in the following graph, there have been relatively small fluctuations in the number of culture and sports workers in small municipalities and rural areas. Recent increases (since 2022) are the main factor in the increase in the number of workers since 2013.
Details for specific geographic areas are not available, because the above data represent the Canadian totals minus the totals for the 31 CMAs with reliable data.
To round out this post, I will compare the above findings to other statistics that I previously analyzed related to small towns and rural areas.
Other data on small towns and rural areas
In the linked article, I noted that 20% of Canada’s artists reside in small towns and rural areas. “Census data indicate that there are 41,500 professional artists in rural communities and small towns.”
In the article, “rural areas and small towns” include all communities with less than 30,000 residents.
My analysis of all workers in the arts, culture, and heritage (no sport occupations!) found that about 175,000 people, or 19% of all cultural workers in Canada, reside in rural areas and small towns.
These percentages are similar to today’s analysis: 16% of workers in the arts, culture, heritage, and sport.
By examining artists by occupation in small towns and rural areas, I found that relatively high proportions of craftspeople, visual artists, and photographers reside in rural areas and small towns.
My analysis of median incomes showed that “rural and small town artists have much lower incomes than other workers in rural communities and small towns”.
In this article, “organizations were classified as being in rural areas or small towns if they are located outside of Census Metropolitan Areas or Census Agglomerations (i.e., regions with core cities that have a population of at least 10,000)”. This is not too far off of the new analysis in today’s article. However, today’s article includes workers in Census Agglomerations, plus 10 CMAs for which the data are not reliable.
Here are some key findings from the analysis in the linked article:
Rural areas and small towns have a higher share of arts, culture, and heritage organizations than their population
Average revenues are much lower for rural-based arts, culture, and heritage organizations ($214,000) than urban ones ($1.4 million).
Organizations in the arts, culture, and heritage – whether rural or urban – have lower average revenues than the average for all types of organizations, as shown in the following graph.
Rural and small town organizations in the arts, culture, and heritage employed 8,400 people in 2021, or 11% of the employees of all not-for-profit arts, culture, and heritage organizations.
Average employment is much lower for rural organizations (4) than urban ones (16).
Data sources and notes (for the new analysis)
Statistics Canada. Table 14-10-0468-01. Employment characteristics by census metropolitan area, annual. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410046801
Population statistics are drawn from Statistics Canada. Table 17-10-0148-01. Population estimates, July 1, by census metropolitan area and census agglomeration, 2021 boundaries, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710014801
Why analyze the Labour Force Survey?
I’ve analyzed this dataset (now), rather than the census (which has a much larger sample size) because of timeliness and easy availability. The strength of the Labour Force Survey is its frequency. It is conducted monthly, but the local cultural estimates would not be reliable on a monthly basis, particularly for areas with smaller populations. To counter this limitation, my analysis focuses on three-year averages (not annual or monthly data). When multiplied by 12 for each year, then by 3 for the three-year averages, the sample sizes become more interesting.
The Labour Force Survey data can show us trends that the census, conducted only every five years, cannot. In addition, occupation data from the census is published roughly a year and a half after the census is conducted. We will probably be waiting until late 2027 for labour force data from the census in May of 2026.
Occupational categories
The data in this article relate to what Statistics Canada calls “occupations in the arts, culture, recreation, and sports, except management”. Most of the people in this category are cultural workers: I have estimated that roughly 75% to 80% of people in this broad occupation grouping work in the arts, culture, and heritage. And the category covers most (but certainly not all) cultural workers: I have estimated that the workers in this broad occupation grouping account for roughly 60% of all workers in the arts, culture, and heritage. (Further details, including a thorough discussion of LFS limitations, is available here.)
Within this broad occupational category, there are four occupation groupings. In Statistics Canada’s language, these are:
Professional occupations in the arts and culture, which include: some artists, such as producers, directors, conductors, and musicians; writers, translators, and other communications professionals; as well as librarians, archivists, conservators, and curators.
Technical occupations in the arts and culture, including: graphic and interior designers; as well as technical workers in libraries, archives, motion pictures, broadcasting, and the performing arts.
Other occupations in the arts, culture, and sports, including: artists such as dancers, actors, comedians, circus performers, photographers, craftspeople, and visual artists; theatre and fashion designers; select museum and art gallery jobs (e.g., registrars, restorers); assistants in film, broadcasting, photography, and performing arts; as well as a few sports occupations (athletes, coaches, and referees).
Support occupations in the arts, culture, and sports, including: program leaders and instructors in recreation, sport, and fitness; as well as puppeteers, buskers, magicians, portrayers of Santa Claus, influencers, and models. The recreation and sports workers in this occupational grouping greatly outnumber the cultural workers (which is why I exclude this grouping whenever possible).
LFS limitations (in brief)
Earnings data are not available in the summary dataset published by Statistics Canada. For the cultural sector, this is not a big loss, because the LFS questionnaire captures salaries only, not self-employment earnings. (That’s the more important limitation for the cultural sector and for other sectors where self-employment is common.)
Other important limitations of the LFS:
People’s description of their main job during the reference period is used to classify them into occupations. Some data on secondary occupations is available but is not covered in this report.
It doesn’t have a large enough sample size to delve into the details for individual occupation groupings in Census Metropolitan Areas, which is why the broad category is helpful.
It captures data on Indigenous workers only every three months and only started capturing data on racialized workers in the summer of 2020.
No data are available for 2SLGBTQIA+, D/deaf, and disabled workers.
Neither the LFS nor the census can provide insights into the reasons behind statistical trends.