The City of Victoria is home to 1,300 professional artists

Victoria has a very high concentration of artists in its labour force

Jan 23, 2024

Following a recent article on the 4,200 artists in British Columbia’s Capital Regional District, this article highlights artists who reside within the municipal boundaries of the City of Victoria. The article is based on custom data that Hill Strategies requested from Statistics Canada’s 2021 long-form census.

The article includes an analysis of the demographics, employment characteristics, and incomes of artists, as well as a brief summary of workers in arts leadership occupations and those in 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 City of Victoria. 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.

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

There are 39,700 professional artists who reside in British Columbia, 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 1,300 professional artists in the City of Victoria, British Columbia. 1 in every 44 local workers is a professional artist. Nearly 8/10 are self-employed. Median personal income of $32,800 is 32% lower than other local workers. Source: Hill Strategies analysis of 2021 census data at http://www.statsinsights.ca.

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High concentration of professional artists in the City of Victoria

The 1,300 professional artists in Victoria account for 2.3% of the City’s labour force, much higher than both the provincial average (1.4%) and the national average (1.0%).

In Victoria, 1 in every 44 workers is a professional artist.

Victoria’s 1,300 artists represent 2.3% of the local labour force, which is more than double the national average (1.0%).

Demographic and employment characteristics of artists in Victoria

Among the 1,300 artists in Victoria:

78% are self-employed, which is about five times the self-employment rate of all workers in Victoria (16%) and higher than the rate among all B.C. artists (72%).
51% have a bachelor’s degree or higher, slightly higher than the percentage of all workers in Victoria (47%) and much higher than that of all B.C. artists (43%).
7% are Indigenous, slightly higher than the percentages of all workers in Victoria (5%) and all B.C. artists (4%).
32% are 55 years of age or older, which is much higher than the proportion of all workers in Victoria (22%) but only slightly higher than that of all B.C. artists (29%).
18% have a child at home, lower than the proportions of all workers in Victoria (21%) and all B.C. artists (29%).
9% are members of a racialized group, which is one-half of the proportion of all workers in Victoria (18%) and roughly one-third of that of all B.C. artists (25%).
53% are women (including some non-binary individuals), similar to the percentages of all workers in Victoria (51%) and all B.C. artists (55%).
19% are immigrants to Canada, equal to the percentage of all workers in Victoria (19%) and similar to that of all B.C. artists (21%).
3% are French speakers (i.e., official language minority), similar to the percentage of all workers in Victoria (4%) and equal to that of all B.C. artists (3%).

A very high proportion of artists in Victoria are self-employed, and just over one-half are women. Relatively few are racialized.

Professional artists in Victoria had very low median incomes in 2020

The financial analysis in this article offers three measurements of artists’ incomes: employment income, personal income, and household income. Employment income shows the work-related earnings of artists from all paid or self-employed positions that they held during the year. Personal income includes all sources, such as employment income, net revenue from self-employment, pandemic supports, rental income, investment income, and others. Finally, household income provides a measure of the family situation of artists.

Median incomes were chosen as the key measurement, because the median should provide a better indication of the situation of a typical professional artist than the average (i.e., the “mean”), a statistic that is more strongly affected by a few individuals with very high incomes. All income statistics are shown before taxes.

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 median employment income of artists in Victoria was just $14,700 in 2020, which is about one-third of the median employment income of all local workers in the same year ($41,600). The median employment income of local artists was higher than the provincial average ($11,100) during a year that was incredibly difficult for many artists.

As shown in this graph, the median personal income of artists in Victoria (from all sources) was $32,800 in 2020, 32% lower than that of all workers in the City ($48,400).

Bar graph of Median personal incomes of professional artists and all workers in Victoria and British Columbia, 2020. All workers in BC, $49200. All workers in Victoria, $48400. BC artists, $29400. Artists in Victoria, $32800. 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 personal income of local artists is slightly higher than the median for all of B.C. ($29,400). The difference in median personal income between artists and other workers in Victoria (-32%) is lower than the differences in all of B.C. (-40%) and all of Canada (-39%).

Artists in Victoria have median household incomes ($76,000) that are 16% lower than other workers in the City ($90,000). The median household income of artists in Victoria is well below the median of all B.C. artists ($92,000).

Professional artists by occupation and industry

There are many different types of artists residing in Victoria. From most to least common in Victoria, the artist occupation groups are:

Writers: 220 (17% of all artists in Victoria)
Musicians: 220 (17%)
Painters, sculptors & other visual artists: 200 (15%)
Producers, directors, choreographers & related occupations: 170 (13%)
Artisans & craftspeople: 140 (11%)
Photographers: 130 (10%)
Actors, comedians & circus performers: 110 (8%)
Other performers: 50 (4%)
Dancers: 40 (3%)
Conductors, composers & arrangers: <40 (not reliable)

Consistent with the very high self-employment rate of artists in the City, the largest industry sector is arts, entertainment, and recreation, which employs 40% of them. This industry sector includes a category for “independent artists, writers, and performers”.

The next-largest industry sectors are information and cultural industries (where 17% of the City’s artists are employed) and educational services (13%). Many artists work in other sectors of the economy: all other industries (excluding the three largest ones) employ 31% of artists.

Over 300 arts leaders reside in Victoria

320 Victoria residents work in five occupation groups that are classified as arts leaders, with the broad grouping of producers, directors, and choreographers accounting for about one-half of them. In Victoria, there are:

170 producers, directors, choreographers & related occupations (53% of the 320 arts leaders in the City)
80 managers in publishing, motion pictures, broadcasting & performing arts (25%)
Fewer than 40 workers in each of three other occupation groups: library, archive, museum & art gallery managers; conductors, composers & arrangers; and conservators & curators.

Victoria has a very high concentration of cultural workers

The 4,800 workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations in Victoria account for 8.5% of the 56,800 people in the local labour force, a percentage that is much higher than both the provincial average (5.4%) and the national average (4.4%). One in every 12 workers in Victoria has a cultural occupation.

In 2020, a typical cultural worker in Victoria had:

Employment income of $36,800, 12% less than all workers in the City ($41,600)
Total personal income of $45,200, 7% less than all workers in the City ($48,400)
Household income of $84,000, 7% less than all workers in the City ($90,000)

The 4,800 cultural workers in Victoria account for 8.5% of the local labour force, close to double the national average (4.4%).

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, which included many pandemic related restrictions and significant slowdowns in artistic activity.