New Report on Arts & Cultural Workers in Canadian Municipalities

Based on the 2011 National Household Survey, a comprehensive new report on Artists and Cultural Workers in Canadian Municipalities by Hill Strategies Research examines the number, incomes, and demographic characteristics of artists and cultural workers in Canada by municipal size. 

Below we've provided a very brief overview of the major points outlined in the report. The full version of the report includes valuable statistics for the arts and culture sector and we encourage you to read it in its entirety on the Hill Strategies Research website here. Other recent reports in Hill Strategies' Statistical Insights on the Arts series have focused on artists and cultural workers in Canada and its provinces and territories. 

For the purposes of the analysis, municipalities were divided into four groups based on population size, and are grouped according to the boundaries of census subdivisions rather than metropolitan areas:

1) All municipalities with a population below 50,000 (total population of 12.1 million, or 36% of the overall Canadian population

2) 69 cities and towns with a population between 50,000 and 165,000 (total population of 6.2 million, or 19% of Canada)

3) 17 cities with a population between 175,000 and 470,000 (total population of 4.5 million, or 13% of Canada)

4) The 11 largest cities in Canada, each with a population of 500,000 or more (total population of 10.6 million, or 32% of Canada)

In addition to highlighting demographic and economic differences by size of municipality, the report also provides key data on artists and cultural workers in each municipality for which there is reliable data.

Report findings show that: 

• Artists tend to reside in the largest cities in Canada;
• The concentration of cultural workers increases by size of municipality;
• Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have the highest concentration of artists and cultural workers; 
• Artists' average incomes, while substantially less than the overall labour force, are highest in the largest cities;
• The average incomes of cultural workers (also significantly less than that of the overall labour force) do not vary much by size of municipality.

Because of major methodological changes, data in this report are not comparable to data in previous report in Hill Strategies' Statistical Insights on the Arts series. The report was funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. 

Read the report in its entirety by clicking here.