A Statistical Profile of Artists in Canada in 2016

The original report posted in Spring 2019 was retracted upon confirmation of the error of inclusion of artists and culture workers not in the labour force in May 2016 but who had worked since January 2015. This is the corrected report in which data on artist and culture workers have been re-stated.

Context

This report focusses on the working lives of artists in Canada, and it is the 49th report in the Statistical Insights on the Arts (SIA) series from Hill Strategies Research. The full report includes details about:

• The overall number of artists,
• Artists by occupation,
• Demographic information such as gender, education, age, Indigenous people, members of racialized groups, and more,
• Self-employment rates,
• Total incomes, employment incomes, and household incomes,
• The industries where artists work, with a focus on the three most common sectors for artists: 1) arts, entertainment, and recreation; 2) educational services; and 3) information and cultural industries.

The report also provides a brief summary of the situation of cultural workers in Canada (a broader grouping which includes but extends well beyond artists).

The report is based on a custom data request from the 2016 long-form census, which classifies people in the occupation in which they worked the most hours during the census reference week (May 1 to 7, 2016). Subsequent reports will examine artists in Canadian provinces and municipalities, as well as demographic differences in the situations of artists.

Purpose of study

A shared commitment to making arts research available to inform the work of Canada's arts community and inform the general public about Canada's arts sector.

Methodology

This report contains statistics on the working lives of artists and cultural workers analyzed from the 2016 long-form census. Readers should keep in mind that when the census was conducted in 2016, Canadians 15 and older were classified in the occupation in which they worked the most hours during the census reference week (May 1 to 7, 2016). If they did not work during that week, they were classified based on the job at which they worked the longest since January 1, 2015. If they did not work at all during that period, they were excluded from the experienced labour force (and the statistics in this report). The census collected income information for 2015, the most recent full calendar year.

It is also important to note that, due to major changes in methods between the 2011 National Household Survey and the 2016 census, data in this report are not comparable to previous reports.

Overview/Key Findings

There are 158,100 artists (who spent more time at their art than at any other occupation in May of 2016), representing almost 1% of the overall Canadian labour force (0.87%). In other words, 1 in every 116 Canadian workers is an artist. The number of artists (158,100) is greater than the labour force in automotive manufacturing (146,200) and the utilities sector (136,400).

Nine detailed occupation codes are included in the count of artists. From largest to smallest, they are:

• Musicians and singers: 35,000 (22% of all artists)
• Authors and writers: 27,700 (18%)
• Producers, directors, choreographers, and related occupations: 27,600 (17%)
• Visual artists: 21,100 (13%)
• Artisans and craftspeople: 14,700 (9%)
• Actors and comedians: 11,400 (7%)
• Dancers: 10,100 (6%)
• Other performers: 6,400 (4%; this category includes circus performers, magicians, puppeteers, models, and other performers not elsewhere classified)
• Conductors, composers, and arrangers: 4,200 (3%)

The report contains other key findings related to the working lives of artists:

• Women comprise 52% of artists, higher than the proportion of all workers (48%).
• A much larger percentage of artists than all workers have a bachelor’s degree or higher (47% vs. 28%).
• 52% of artists are self-employed, compared with only 12% of all Canadian workers.
• The age distribution of artists is fairly similar to all workers: nearly one-half of artists (46%) are 45 years of age or older, similar to the 44% of all workers. However, more artists than all workers are 65 years of age or older (9% vs. 4%).
• Racialized Canadians are under-represented among artists (15%) compared with all workers (21%).
• Indigenous and immigrant workers are slightly under-represented among artists: Indigenous People (3.1% of artists and 3.9% of all workers) and immigrants (21% of artists and 24% of all workers).

The median individual income of Canada’s artists is $24,300, or 44% less than all Canadian workers ($43,500). The main component of total income, for most workers, is employment income (including wages, salaries, and self-employment earnings). A typical artist has employment income of $17,300, a figure that is 56% lower than the median of all workers ($39,000). For the first time in 2016, household income statistics were requested from the census. A typical artist has a household income of $57,800, 33% lower than all workers ($86,500).