Census Paints Picture of Artists
By Jacqueline Trescott, Washington Post Staff Writer
Although it may not appear that way here in Washington, there are more 
working artists than lawyers in the United States, and their numbers are growing.
A study of census data released yesterday by the National Endowment for the Arts found that nearly 2 million people earn a living as artists, compared with 1.7 million who listed artist as an occupation in 1990. (The country has 1 million lawyers.)
The Washington region has the fourth-highest number of artists among the top 50 metropolitan areas in the United States, trailing Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. More than 47,000 people — out of a civilian workforce of 2.7 million — work as artists in the Washington area, according to the study. By comparison, there are 140,000 working artists in the Los Angeles/Long Beach area.
Artists now represent 1.4 percent of the U.S. labor force, said Dana Gioia, the NEA chairman. 
In 2000 the census counted 1.93 million working artists. Follow-up studies from 2003 to 2005 raised that number to 1.99 million.
“Artists now represent a major economic occupation,” Gioia said. He estimates that the aggregate income of artists is now $70 billion.
Artists, despite being twice as likely to have a college degree as other workers, are seriously underemployed and earn less than other professionals. For instance, 55 percent of employed artists work full time, and 28 percent work fewer than 35 hours a week. Nearly 35 percent are self-employed.
The number of artists more than doubled between 1970 and 1990, two decades that saw growth in museums, theaters, small symphonies and dance companies in many regions of the country.
The rate of growth has now slowed, he said, “because we may have reached a point of stability. It reflects the maturation of American culture.”