How Many Artists Are There?
There were 2,511,000 artists in the United States
in 2001, according to the 2001 Current Population Survey.
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About this Quick Fact
All Artists
The most inclusive answer: using 2001 Current Population Survey data
and applying the broadest possible definition of artist -- that is, including
all 11 occupational categories classified by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as artistic occupations
and counting all self-identified artists, whether employed in primary
or secondary jobs or not -- there were 2,511,000 artists in the United
States in 2001, representing 1.8 percent of the total civilian labor force.
Of these:
- 2,108,000 (84%) were employed in primary jobs as artists;
- 315,000 (12.5%) were employed in secondary jobs as artists; and
- 88,000 (3.5%) were unemployed.
.
| Artist Occupation Categories |
| Actors and directors |
163,000 |
6.5% of all artists |
| Announcers |
78,000 |
3.1% |
| Architects |
224,000 |
8.9% |
| Authors |
148,000 |
5.9% |
| Dancers |
33,000 |
1.3% |
| Designers |
867,000 |
34.5% |
| Musicians and composers |
273,000 |
10.9% |
| Painters, sculptors and craft artists |
288,000 |
11.5% |
| Photographers |
182,000 |
7.2% |
| Teachers of art, drama and music |
60,000 |
2.4% |
| Other artists (not elsewhere classified) |
195,000 |
7.8% |
| Total |
2,511,000 |
100.0% |
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Artists in Traditional Performing & Visual Arts Occupations
A very restrictive definition of artist might include only the four categories
traditionally associated with either the performing or visual arts --
actors and directors; dancers; musicians and composers; and painters,
sculptors and craft artists. By this definition, there were 757,000 "traditional"
artists in the United States in 2001 (0.5 percent of the total civilian
workforce). These traditional artist occupations account for 30% of all
artists in the National Endowment for the Arts definition.
Adding "teachers of art, drama and music" to the category of
traditional artists increases the total to 817,000 (0.6% of the total
civilian workforce). Adding photographers brings the total to 999,000
(0.7%).
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Artists Compared to Other Professional Occupations
Artists are classified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as a sub-category
of "Professional Specialty Occupations," a classification that
also includes the engineering, scientific, medical, teaching, counseling,
religious, legal, journalistic, and athletic professions. Counting employed
persons only (in primary occupations), artists made up about 10 percent
of all employed professionals in the United States in 2001. Professionals,
in turn, made up about 16 percent of all employed civilians.
| Employed artists as a subset of professionals |
| Teachers/librarians/curators* |
6,663,000 |
30.9% |
| Medical workers |
4,142,000 |
19.2% |
| Scientists/mathematicians/computer scientists |
2,685,000 |
12.5% |
| Engineers/surveyors |
2,145,000 |
9.9% |
| Artists (National Endowment for the Arts' 11 occupational
categories) |
2,108,000 |
9.8% |
| Social, recreation, & religious workers |
1,449,000 |
6.7% |
| Lawyers & judges |
966,000 |
4.5% |
| Social scientists/counselors |
712,000 |
3.3% |
| Journalists/technical writers/public relations |
572,000 |
2.7% |
| Athletes |
114,000 |
0.5% |
| Total |
21,556,000 |
100.0% |
| *excludes
teachers of art, drama & music (n=45,000) |
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