In 2023, the arts and cultural industries accounted for 4.2 percent of the U.S. GDP, putting it on par with food and agriculture and construction. Despite that economic impact, policymakers, funders, and workforce development agencies operate with surprisingly little reliable data about the people who produce art and sustain the creative sector.

Federal labor surveys—the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey—capture only a narrow slice of the artist workforce. They identify people whose primary or secondary occupation falls into specific arts categories, but they miss artists who work in non-arts jobs while maintaining dedicated artistic practices. They miss “culture bearer” artists who learned their practice from ancestors or elders and who sustain cultural traditions. They miss the growing number of artists who support themselves through teaching, gig work, or portfolio careers that don’t fit neat occupational categories.

This data gap has real consequences. Policymakers designing workforce development programs don’t know how many artists live in their communities or what their needs are. Foundations allocating dollars to support artists lack benchmarks for measuring impact. State arts agencies struggle to articulate the economic value of their work because the data don’t exist to show who the artist workforce is or how it contributes to local and regional economies. Arts administrators can’t design benefit systems or support programs without understanding how artists earn a living. 

The National Survey of Artists tackles this problem through methodological innovation. Working closely with the Mellon Foundation and an advisory board comprising artists, culture bearers, and researchers, NORC developed a screening process that asks about actual creative practices rather than relying on occupational codes. The screener took five considerations into account:

• The kinds of creative work people do (drawing, music, theater, craft work, writing, etc.)
• How they engage with that work (as teachers, professionals, former professionals, or culture bearers)
• Whom they share their work with (community members, clients, broader audiences, etc.)
• How they are recognized by others
• How much time they dedicate to their practice

Crucially, the screener did not directly ask respondents, “Are you an artist?”—though we did ask later in the survey—as our preliminary research revealed that many working artists don’t claim that identity.

The survey findings largely confirm what artists, researchers, and funders have long suspected about economic precarity in the creative workforce. At the same time, some findings offer new perspectives on the complexity of artists’ work lives.

Financial Vulnerability: 

• More than half of artists (57 percent) reported being somewhat or very worried about at least one marker of financial vulnerability—affording food, housing, utilities, or medical care.
• Twenty-two percent worry specifically about having enough to eat; 32 percent worry about covering medical costs.
• Thirty-seven percent receive some form of public assistance.

Complex Employment: 

• Fifty percent are self-employed in their primary job; 34 percent are fully self-employed.
• Of artists’ primary jobs (the one generating the most income), 61 percent were part time and 36 percent were temporary. Yet 11 percent held three or more jobs in the past year.
• The median income from a primary job was $15,000, and the median hours worked was 25 per week.

Workforce Diversity: 

• Thirty percent of artists’ primary income-earning jobs are not in the arts at all.
• The top non-arts occupations include health care (nursing and medical technicians), sales, and education.

Overlooked Roles:

• Twenty-eight percent of artists are teaching artists.
• Eight percent are military Veterans.
• Twenty-eight percent provide unpaid care for family members or friends due to health conditions or disabilities.
• Artists’ overlapping roles suggest they are deeply embedded in their communities and that support systems designed for artists could address broader social needs.

Health and Benefits:   

• Eighty-four percent of artists have health insurance—a rate comparable to or higher than many American workers.
• Most do not access insurance through their primary job.
• When insurance does not come through employment, it often comes through a spouse’s job, family members’ coverage, or the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.

For state arts agencies, the survey provides benchmarks for evaluating their own artist populations and targeting support. For workforce boards, it shows that artists are a significant segment of the contingent and self-employed workforce, with needs similar to gig workers and independent contractors. For philanthropies, it offers data to refine grantmaking priorities, benchmark grantee populations against national patterns, and measure outcomes. For cultural institutions and arts service organizations, the data illustrate the complexity of artists’ lives and the limitations of employment-based support models.

The survey also positions artists within broader labor market conversations. The precarity, self-employment rates, and multiple jobholding documented here mirror challenges faced by gig workers and other contingent workers. Solutions designed to support artists—such as portable benefits, micro-lending, or tax structures that accommodate irregular income—could benefit millions of workers across the economy.