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# What Does the US Arts Community Look Like? NEA Study Sheds Some Light
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/nea-study-of-artist-wages/
- Published: 2011-10-28T19:04:50.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:02:32.000Z
- Description: There are 2.1 million "artists" in the United States, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. The national arts organization has just released a study that examines the demographics of the country's artists. Here are some notable facts …
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: News, #image-position-hidden, demographics, National Endowment for the Arts, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/10/artist-occupations-600.jpg "artist-occupations-600")](http://www.arts.gov/research/Notes/105.pdf?ref=hyperallergic.com)

There are 2.1 million “artists” in the United States, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. The national arts organization has just released a study that examines the demographics of the country’s artists. I’ve included the word artist in quotation marks because their definition includes many shades of artistry to reach that number. I don’t think they were wrong to be so inclusive but I do think most people don’t normally associate floral designers, for instance, under the banner of “artist.”

Some notable facts:

- **There are 2.1 million artists in the United States.** They make up 1.4% of the total workforce, and 6.9% of the professional workforce (artists are classified as “professional workers”).
  - Largest categories: **designers** (graphic, commercial, and industrial designers, fashion designers, floral designers, interior designers, merchandise displayers, and set and exhibit designers) are 39% and **performing artists** are 17%.
  - Fine artists, art directors, and animators make up 10% of all artists.
  - Writers/authors and architects each compose 9-10& of all artists.
- More than half of artists (54%) work in the private, for-profit sector; 35 percent are self-employed.
- Women artists earn $0.81 cents for every dollar earned by men artists. This gap is similar to that in the overall labor force (where women earn $0.80 cents for every dollar earned by men).
- Artists’ median wages and salaries ($43,000 in 2009) are higher than the median for the whole labor force ($39,000).
  - Architects make the highest median wage ($63,000), while workers who are classified as “other entertainers” had the lowest ($25,000).

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/10/median-wages-600.jpg "median-wages-600")](http://www.arts.gov/research/Notes/105.pdf?ref=hyperallergic.com)

And here are some notable points I gleamed from the report about the demographics of US artists:

- Artists are less socioeconomically and demographically diverse than the total U.S. workforce, yet diversity levels vary across individual artist occupations.
  - Only 13% of writers and authors are non-white and/or Hispanic, compared with 32% of the total workforce
  - Yet 27% of actors are non-white and/or Hispanic — roughly the same proportion of musicians, announcers, and other entertainers.
  - 41% of all dancers and choreographers are non-white and/or Hispanic — nine points higher than the corresponding share of the U.S. workforce.
- While artists as a whole are less likely to be foreign-born than other US workers, some of the highest-paid artist occupations have the highest rates of foreign-born workers. Architects and designers are the most likely to be foreign-born (14–16%, roughly the same as the US workforce).
- New York (2.3% of the workforce) and California (2% of the workforce) have the highest numbers of artists in the US.
- Oregon and Vermont have 20% greater-than-average numbers of artists, with writers and authors especially prominent.
- The greater Pittsburgh area has twice the concentration of museum workers nationwide.

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/10/us-state-labor-force-600.jpg "us-state-labor-force-600")](http://www.arts.gov/research/Notes/105.pdf?ref=hyperallergic.com)

Read the whole report [here](http://www.arts.gov/research/Notes/105.pdf?ref=hyperallergic.com).