Over 4,000 professional artists in B.C.’s Capital Regional District

The CRD has a very high concentration of artists in its labour force

Dec 19, 2023

This article examines the demographics, employment characteristics, and incomes of artists in the Capital Regional District of British Columbia, based on custom data that Hill Strategies requested from Statistics Canada’s 2021 long-form census. The article also offers a brief summary of workers in arts leadership occupations and all occupations in the arts, culture, and heritage (a category that includes artists and arts leaders).

The article is made possible with the support of the Capital Regional District. Hill Strategies Research retained editorial control of the content.

Details of the occupational categories and other notes regarding methods are provided at the end of the article.

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Provincial and national context: Artists, arts leaders, and all cultural workers

There are 39,700 professional artists who reside in B.C., representing 20% of the 202,900 artists in Canada. As a percentage of the overall labour force, artists account for 1.4% in B.C., the highest percentage among the provinces and well above the national average (1.0%). In B.C., one in every 72 workers is an artist, compared with one in every 102 Canadian workers. (Articles related to B.C. artists and Canadian artists are available. The Canadian post provides a list of the 10 artist occupation groups.)

56,200 Canadians, including 10,100 British Columbians, work in five occupation groups that are classified as arts leaders. B.C. accounts for 18% of Canada’s arts leaders, higher than the province’s share of all workers (14%). For more information on the occupation groups included as arts leaders, please see this Canada-wide article. Two of the arts leadership occupations (those including conductors and composers as well as producers, directors, and choreographers) are also included as artists. As such, the number of arts leadership workers should not be added to the number of artists in any jurisdiction.

The broadest analysis relates to the 154,800 British Columbians and 914,000 Canadians who work in arts, culture, and heritage occupations. These workers represent 5.4% of B.C.’s labour force, the highest proportion among the provinces and well above the national average of 4.4%. One in every 18 B.C. 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).

Graphic of key facts about the 4,200 professional artists in the Capital Regional District of British Columbia. 1 in every 58 local workers is a professional artist. The District has one of the highest concentrations of artists in the country. The median personal income of artists is 40% lower than other local workers. Source: Hill Strategies analysis of 2021 census data at http://www.statsinsights.ca.

The 4,200 professional artists in the Capital Regional District represent a very high proportion of all local workers

There are 4,200 professional artists in the Capital Regional District (CRD), representing 1.7% of the Capital Regional District’s overall labour force, which is higher than both the provincial average (1.4%) and the national average (1.0%).

In other words, 1 in every 58 workers in the Capital Regional District is a professional artist, a statistic that places the CRD in the top 10 of nearly 300 regions, districts, and counties in Canada.

The Capital Regional District’s 4,200 artists represent 1.7% of the local labour force, a proportion that is in the top 10 of nearly 300 regions, districts, and counties in Canada.

Demographic and employment characteristics of artists in the Capital Regional District

Among the 4,200 artists in the CRD:

48% have a bachelor’s degree or higher, higher than the proportions of all workers in the CRD (37%) and all B.C. artists (43%).
41% are 55 years of age or older, which is higher than the proportions of all workers in the CRD (27%) and all B.C. artists (29%).
81% are self-employed, more than four times the self-employment rate of all workers in the CRD (18%) and higher than the rate among all B.C. artists (72%).
58% are women (including some non-binary people), much higher than the proportion of all workers in the CRD (50%) and slightly above the percentage of all B.C. artists (55%).
6% are Indigenous, slightly higher than the percentages of all workers in the CRD (5%) and all B.C. artists (4%).
20% are immigrants to Canada, similar to the percentages of all workers in the CRD (19%) and all B.C. artists (21%).
3% are French speakers (i.e., official language minority), equal to the percentages of all workers in the CRD (9%) and all B.C. artists (3%).
24% have a child at home, lower than the proportions of all workers in the CRD (33%) and all B.C. artists (29%).
8% are members of racialized groups, a proportion that is much lower than those of all workers in the CRD (17%) and all B.C. artists (25%).

Relatively high proportions of artists in the CRD are women, 55 years or older, or self-employed. Relatively few are racialized.

Professional artists in the Capital Regional District had very low median incomes in 2020

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.

In addition, the article focuses on total personal incomes, but information about employment and household incomes are also provided. Personal income includes all sources, such as employment income, net revenue from self-employment, pandemic supports, rental income, and investment income. Employment income shows the earnings of artists from all paid and self-employed positions, and household income provides a measure of the family situation of artists.

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.

The graph below shows the median personal incomes of artists and all workers in the CRD and the province. The median personal income of artists in the CRD (from all sources) was $31,200 in 2020, 40% lower than that of all workers in the District ($51,600). The median personal income of local artists is slightly higher than the median for all artists in B.C. ($29,400). The difference in median personal income between artists and other workers in the CRD (-40%) is equal to the difference in all of B.C. (-40%) and is very close to the national difference (-39%).

Bar graph of Median personal incomes of professional artists and all workers in the Capital Regional District and British Columbia, 2020. All workers in BC, $49200. All workers in the CRD, $51600. BC artists, $29400. Artists in the CRD, $31200. Note: Personal incomes include all sources for an individual during the 2020 calendar year. Source: 2021 census, custom data request by Hill Strategies.

The median employment income of artists in the CRD was just $10,300 in 2020, which is about one-quarter of the median employment income of all local workers in the same year ($43,600). The median employment income of local artists was slightly below the provincial average ($11,100) during a year that was incredibly difficult for many artists.

Artists in the CRD, despite support from other members of their households, have a median household income ($87,000) that is 26% lower than other workers in the CRD ($118,000). The median household income of artists in the CRD is slightly below the median of all B.C. artists ($92,000).

Professional artists by occupation and industry

As is the case in the province as a whole, musicians are the largest artist occupation group in the CRD, accounting for roughly one in every five artists in the District. From most to least common in the CRD, the counts of artists by occupation group are as follows:

Musicians: 870 (21% of all artists in the CRD)
Writers: 700 (17%)
Painters, sculptors & other visual artists: 640 (15%)
Artisans & craftspeople: 500 (12%)
Photographers: 420 (10%)
Producers, directors, choreographers & related occupations: 420 (10%)
Actors, comedians & circus performers: 270 (6%)
Dancers: 140 (3%)
Other performers: 120 (3%)
Conductors, composers & arrangers: 80 (2%)

Consistent with the very high self-employment rate of artists in the District, the largest industry sector is arts, entertainment, and recreation, which employs 36% of them. This industry sector includes a category for “independent artists, writers, and performers”.

The next-largest industry sectors are educational services (where 17% of Capital Regional District artists are employed) and information and cultural industries (13%). Many CRD artists work in other sectors of the economy: all other industries (excluding the three largest ones) employ 33% of artists.

800 arts leaders reside in the Capital Regional District

There are 800 CRD 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 the CRD, there are:

420 producers, directors, choreographers & related occupations (52% of the arts leaders in the District)
180 managers in publishing, motion pictures, broadcasting & performing arts (23%)
80 conductors, composers & arrangers (10%)
70 library, archive, museum & art gallery managers (9%)
50 conservators & curators (6%)

The Capital Regional District has a very high concentration of cultural workers

There are 14,400 workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations in the Capital Regional District, representing 6.0% of the 241,400 people in the District’s labour force, above both the provincial average (5.4%) and the national average (4.4%). One in every 17 workers in the Capital Regional District has a cultural occupation.

In 2020, a typical cultural worker in the CRD had:

Employment income of $32,800, 25% less than all workers in the District ($43,600)
Total personal income of $43,600, 16% less than all workers in the District ($51,600)
Household income of $102,000, 14% less than all workers in the District ($118,000)

Notes regarding methods and occupational groupings

The above 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 arts leadership occupations and all cultural occupations.)

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 recent 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.

To ensure confidentiality and data reliability, no estimates of fewer than 40 people are presented in this article.

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. Income data from the census relate to the 2020 calendar year.