Artists in the US Workforce - 1990 to 2005

The US National Endowment for the Arts has analysed US census occupation data to identify trends in employment patterns for artists from 1900 to 2005. Key findings include:

• nearly two million Americans identify an artist occupation as their primary job - this total excludes an estimated 300,000 Americas with secondary employment as artists
• after doubling from 1970 to 1990, artists have begun to hold steady as a proportion of American workers (1.4 percent)
  
• writers were among the fastest growing artist occupations from 1990 to 2005 - growing at twice the rate of the total labor force
  
• the US artist population is becoming more diverse: percentage of non-Hispanic white artists dipped from 86% to 80% (from 1990 to 2005); percentage of Hispanic, Asian and Native-American artists rose from 6% in 1990 to nearly 15% in 2005; over the same 15 year period, the proportion of African-American artists remained steady at 5%
  
• the West and South have seen the greatest growth in artists by state: Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Arizona saw growth in the artist population 2.5-5 times taht of the US labor force from 1990 to 2000; Florida and Georgia led the South with a 23% growth in artists (double the national average).

Artists In Workforce Over Time

	1990 census	2000 census	2003-2005 ACS
Total Artists	1,727,507	1,927,400	1,999,474
Actors	35,916	38,605	39,717
Announcers	68,590	54,855	55,817
Architects	167,151	192,860	198,498
Fine artists, art directors, animators	278,516	231,690	216,996
Dancers and choreographers	21,771	26,915	25,651
Designers	619,328	749,335	779,359
Entertainers and performers	16,929	37,590	41.128
Musicians	148,162	170,015	169,6487
Photographers	117,084	124,045	147,389
Producers and Directors	120,609	139,335	139,996
Writers and Authors	133,471	162,155	185,276

Source: http://www.nea.gov/research/ArtistsInWorkforce.pdf