The Who, Where, and How Many of America’s Working Artists

A new study published by the National Endowment for the Arts profiles America's 2 million professional artists (including architects), with information on artist salaries, a breakdown of occupations, and the cities with the most working artists.

1 minute read

July 4, 2013, 7:00 AM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj

"Last week, we learned a lot more about the roughly 2 million artists in the workforce thanks to the NEA study, “Equal Opportunity Data Mining: National Statistics about Working Artists,” writes Katherine Boyle. "The study, based on Census data, classifies artists by occupation, demographics and region. The NEA also provides this handy interactive map, which ranks states according to artists as a share of the state’s total labor force."

Among the most interesting findings, says Boyle:

California is still America’s favorite artist commune: Los Angeles (4.86 percent) and San Francisco (4.3 percent) boast the highest percentages of artists in their workforces.
Design is the most common artistic profession: 39 percent of artists in the workforce classify themselves as designers. Architects make up 9 percent.
Female architects still have a ways to go: Only one in four architects in the United States are women.

FULL STORY: Five facts about professional artists in the United States

Saturday, June 29, 2013 in The Washington Post

Architecture Social / Demographics United States Artists Professional Artists Architects View More

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