Artists in Canada’s Provinces and Territories in 2016

Context

This report examines the number and incomes of artists in each of Canada’s provinces and territories and it is the 50th report in the Statistical Insights on the Arts (SIA) series from Hill Strategies Research. The following factors are examined in the report:

• The overall number of artists and cultural workers
• Artists by occupation
• Demographic information on artists, such as gender, education, age, as well as whether artists are Indigenous or members of racialized groups
• Self-employment rates of artists
• Total incomes, employment incomes, and household incomes of artists and cultural workers
• The industry sectors in which artists work

The report also provides a brief summary of the situation of cultural workers in each province and territory (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

A previous report in the Statistical Insights on the Arts series found that there are 158,100 artists in Canada, representing almost 1% of the overall Canadian labour force (0.87%). In this report, this percentage is referred to as the “concentration of artists.”

Some key findings of the analysis include:

• With 66,000 artists who spent more time at their art than at any other occupation, Ontario accounts for 42% of Canada’s artists, almost twice as many as any other province.
• Musicians and singers represent the largest arts occupation in nine provinces. In Quebec, the largest arts occupation is producers, directors, and choreographers.
• British Columbia has the highest concentration of artists (1.18%) and the second-highest concentration of cultural workers (4.7%) in the country.
• Nunavut has the second-highest concentration of artists in the country (1.17%). Ninety-one percent are Indigenous (by far the largest proportion in the country), and 71% are artisans and craftspeople.
• Yukon has the third-highest concentration of artists (1.14%) and the highest concentration of cultural workers (5.3%) in the country.
• Women represent 52% of Canadian artists and a majority of artists in all provinces and territories except Quebec (48%) and Nunavut (26%). The highest proportions of female artists are in Saskatchewan (62%) and Alberta (60%).
• The proportion of artists with at least a bachelor’s degree is highest in Nova Scotia and Yukon (each 51%), followed by Ontario (50%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (49%).
• The percentage of artists who are 45 years of age or older is highest in Yukon (63%), followed by the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Nova Scotia (each 54%).
• Members of racialized groups represent a higher proportion of artists in British Columbia (20%) and Ontario (18%) than in any other province.
• Self-employment rates are highest among artists in the three territories: Yukon (69%), Nunavut (66%), and the Northwest Territories (58%). Among the provinces, self-employment rates are highest in British Columbia and Nova Scotia (each 56%).
• Among the provinces, Quebec has the smallest difference between the median income of artists and all workers (-35%) as well as the smallest difference between cultural workers and all workers (-1%).
• Artists in Nunavut have the lowest median incomes ($10,700) of any jurisdiction in Canada.