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Visual Arts: Income

Question for Department for Culture, Media and Sport

UIN HL2383, tabled on 12 February 2024

To ask His Majesty's Government how the Department of Culture, Media and Sport ensures accuracy and comprehensiveness in capturing the financial details of visual artists who may have diverse income streams.

Answered on

26 February 2024

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) publishes official statistics on earnings in the sectors and occupations for which it has policy responsibility. These statistics focus on how much is earned by an individual in a particular job, rather than providing information on an individuals’ total earnings.

We publish the following estimates of earnings:

  1. Based on the Office for National Statistics (ONS)’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, we publish median annual and weekly earnings for any job in a DCMS sector. This would include anyone working in, for example, the cultural subsector of ‘Arts’ and the creative industries subsector ‘Music, performing and visual arts’. Earnings of visual artists who are self-employed or who work in industries outside these statistics would not be captured in these earnings estimates.

  1. Based on ONS’s Annual Population Survey, we publish hourly gross pay estimates for any self-identified main job in a DCMS sector. Using the same data source, we also publish hourly gross pay estimates for any self-identified main job in a DCMS creative occupation. This would include, for example, Artists (SOC 3411) and Graphic Designers (SOC 3421).

We recently asked users of our statistics for feedback on these estimates and are considering our plans for these publications in the future.