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Arts Participation Statistics: Who Creates, Learns, and Shares Art

U.S. survey findings on art-making, visual practice, classes, community access, and sharing, with each measure tied to its reported population and period.

November 12, 2026 9 min read gunkiss.com Editorial Team

Contents

Arts participation statistics by age, gender, and background

The 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) and the 2024 Household Pulse Survey (HPS) measure different windows of activity. The SPPA figures here generally cover whether adults participated during the previous 12 months. HPS asked whether respondents had created, practiced, or performed art in the previous month. Their percentages describe different reference periods and should be read separately.

Population and measureReported participation
Female adults, created or performed art, 2022 SPPA Table 155.0%
Male adults, created or performed art, 2022 SPPA Table 148.5%
Female adults, comparable creation or performance measure, 2022 SPPA Table 1245.9%
Male adults, comparable creation or performance measure, 2022 SPPA Table 1239.4%

Both SPPA tables report higher creation or performance rates for female than male adults, but their overall levels differ because the tables use distinct measures. The figures should not be combined into one estimate. Source: 2022 SPPA, Tables 1 and 12

The age comparisons also depend on which SPPA table is used. In Table 1, 65.9% of adults aged 18–24 and 42.1% of adults aged 75 and over created or performed art. In Table 12’s comparable measure, the rate for ages 18–24 was 53.3% in 2022, compared with 34.1% in 2017. Table 12 reports a 19.3 percentage-point change for that age group. These are survey estimates for the named age band and period, not a measure of individual people’s behavior over time. Source: 2022 SPPA, Tables 1 and 12

Table 12 also reports that 47.8% of non-Hispanic White adults and 31.2% of non-Hispanic Black adults created or performed art in 2022. These are category-specific rates from the SPPA’s comparable measure. Source: 2022 SPPA, Table 12

The HPS brief provides a shorter window: across four cycles fielded April 2–July 22, 2024, 16.3% of adults reported creating, practicing, or performing art in the previous month. The brief says this represented an average of 41.9 million adults across those cycles. That national estimate sits alongside subgroup differences: 25.9% of adults aged 18–24 and 12.7% of adults aged 55–64 reported previous-month art creation. Source: NEA, Arts Attendance, Art-Making, and Social Connectedness: Spring/Summer 2024, pp. 2–3

HPS population, previous-month creationReported rate
Women17.7%
Men14.8%
Two or more races, combined with non-Hispanic adults from other listed racial/ethnic groups20.4%
Non-Hispanic White adults18.6%
Non-Hispanic Asian adults14.9%
Hispanic adults12.0%
Non-Hispanic Black adults10.1%

The HPS gender comparison uses current gender identity and reports male and female comparisons. Its race and ethnicity figures follow the categories described in the brief; the 20.4% figure combines two or more races with non-Hispanic adults from other listed groups. Keeping those category definitions visible matters when comparing rates. Source: NEA, Arts Attendance, Art-Making, and Social Connectedness: Spring/Summer 2024, p. 3 and gender-measure footnote on p. 2

Arts participation statistics for drawing, illustration, and visual practice

The 2025 National Survey of Artists reports two different populations: a qualifying artist sample and a nationally representative screener sample of U.S. adults. The artist-sample activity percentages below describe activities reported during the previous 12 months; they are not estimates of how many U.S. adults practice each discipline.

Visual-art activity among NORC artist-sample respondentsShare reporting activity
Drawing or illustration18.09%
Painting17.40%
Digital art14.35%
Sculpture7.61%
Printmaking5.81%

Drawing or illustration was reported by 18.09% of the artist sample, while painting and digital art were also reported by substantial portions of that sample. Sculpture and printmaking appear as additional distinct practices in the table. These are activity selections within a qualifying artist sample, not a ranking of all adults or a measure of time spent on each activity. Source: NORC, National Survey of Artists: Findings Report, October 2025, Table 1.1, p. 11

The same report’s Appendix A gives an all-adult denominator for its nationally representative U.S. adult screener sample. In that sample, 78.29% reported participating in visual arts during the previous 12 months. This broad discipline measure is not directly comparable with the artist-sample percentages for particular activities above. Source: NORC, National Survey of Artists: Findings Report, Appendix A, Table A1 and denominator note

The 2022 SPPA offers more specific activity measures for U.S. adults. In the 12-month period ending July 2022, 10.7% created other visual art and 13.3% took photographs as an artistic activity. A separate SPPA table reports that 14.4% created photos, films, and videos as an artistic activity in 2022, compared with 16.5% in 2017. The activity labels and survey table definitions differ, so these figures are best treated as separate indicators rather than a single visual-media series. Sources: NEA, Arts Participation Patterns in 2022, Figure 7; 2022 SPPA, Table 17

The SPPA highlights also report that 4.5% of U.S. adults created a performance or work of visual art using a computer or mobile device in 2022. This is a specific device-based activity measure, distinct from the broader visual-art participation and artist-sample digital-art categories. Source: NEA, Arts Participation Patterns in 2022, Figure 7

Arts participation statistics: learning and creative development

Arts classes and lessons are a separate participation measure from making art. In the comparable SPPA measure, 11.8% of U.S. adults took any arts classes or lessons in the previous 12 months in 2022, up from 9.5% in 2017. The report gives a 2.3 percentage-point change. Source: 2022 SPPA, Table 13

U.S. adults taking arts classes or lessons20172022
Any arts classes or lessons, comparable measure9.5%11.8%
Other visual arts3.6%2.6%
Photography or filmmaking1.6%1.8%
Creative writing1.7%1.9%

Subject-specific rates offer a more focused view of learning. Other visual arts classes or lessons were reported by 2.6% of adults in 2022, compared with 3.6% in 2017. Photography or filmmaking measured 1.8% in 2022 and 1.6% in 2017; creative writing measured 1.9% and 1.7%, respectively. These are the percentages for the named subjects, not components that should be summed into an overall rate. Source: 2022 SPPA, Table 18

For 2022, the SPPA separately reports that 2.2% of U.S. adults took classes or lessons in computer animation, digital art, or creative coding in the previous 12 months. The report notes that the 2017 survey item did not specify creative coding, so this combined category does not provide a like-for-like 2017 comparison. Source: 2022 SPPA, Exhibit 14

Participation in arts learning varied by age and education in 2022. Among adults aged 18–24, 25.5% took arts classes or lessons, compared with 5.3% of adults aged 75 and over. By education category, the reported rates were 16.2% for college graduates and 17.0% for adults with graduate-school education. These are subgroup rates for any arts classes or lessons, not rates for a particular visual-art subject. Source: 2022 SPPA, Table 13

Arts participation statistics across metro, regional, and local communities

The 2022 SPPA reports art creation or performance among 52.0% of adults in metropolitan areas and 50.8% of adults in nonmetropolitan areas. The overall measure is relatively close across these two residence categories, while individual art forms show a different pattern. Source: 2022 SPPA, Exhibit 20

For leather, metal, or woodwork, the reported rate was 13.3% among nonmetropolitan adults and 8.2% among metropolitan adults. For weaving, crocheting, quilting, needlework, knitting, or sewing, the respective rates were 14.3% and 11.2%. Those figures describe the listed activities by metro status and do not establish why participation differs. Source: 2022 SPPA, Table 21

Regional results show further variation. In 2022, 59.9% of adults in the Midwest and 41.1% of adults in the South personally created or performed art; the New England figure was 54.2%. The SPPA reports six regional groupings, and these selected figures should be understood within those group definitions. Source: 2022 SPPA, Table 24

Among the report’s 20 top metropolitan areas, personal creation or performance rates ranged from 31.8% in Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell to 75.8% in Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue. Other reported metro-area values include 67.0% in Phoenix–Mesa–Scottsdale and 30.8% in Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach. Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington was at 62.2%, while New York–Newark–Jersey City was at 40.7%. These are 2022 estimates for adults in the named metropolitan areas. Source: 2022 SPPA, narrative before Table 22 and Table 22

Arts participation statistics for digital sharing and access

In the 2024 HPS, previous-month art creation, practice, or performance stayed close across the four reported cycles: 16.3% for April 2–29, 16.4% for April 30–May 27, 16.3% for May 28–June 24, and 16.3% for June 25–July 22. These cycle-specific results use the same previous-month question across the listed collection periods. Source: NEA, Arts Attendance, Art-Making, and Social Connectedness: Spring/Summer 2024, p. 3

The HPS also asked about local opportunity. Across the four cycles, 62.2% of adults agreed or strongly agreed that their neighborhood or community had plenty of opportunities to take part in arts and cultural activities. The response distribution was 16.4% strongly agree, 45.8% agree, 26.3% disagree, and 11.6% strongly disagree. This records respondents’ views of local access, rather than a count of nearby venues or programs. Source: NEA, Arts Attendance, Art-Making, and Social Connectedness: Spring/Summer 2024, p. 3

The NORC report’s Appendix A describes intended audiences in its nationally representative adult sample. Among adults reporting selected artistic disciplines, 81.73% named themselves as an intended audience and 69.32% named people they knew personally. The same table reports community as an intended audience for 27.41% and clients for 17.33%. These figures concern intended audiences for selected artistic activities during the previous 12 months; they do not measure online posting or audience size. Source: NORC, National Survey of Artists: Findings Report, Appendix A, Table A3 and denominator note

For sharing or posting about art, the SPPA reports 19.7% of U.S. adults in 2022, compared with 30.7% in 2017. Its comparable table gives an 11.0 percentage-point decrease. Sharing arts creations or performances via the internet is a related but distinct indicator: in 2022, 29.0% of adults aged 18–24 and 12.2% of adults aged 75 and over did so. Sources: 2022 SPPA, Table 10 and Exhibit 13

Age and gender comparisons in the 2022 SPPA add detail on sharing. Among adults aged 18–24, 25.3% shared or posted about art, compared with 10.1% of adults aged 75 and over. The reported rate was 22.2% for female adults and 17.0% for male adults. These estimates describe sharing or posting in 2022, a measure that should not be conflated with the separate internet-sharing item. Source: 2022 SPPA, Table 10

Sources

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