What the U.S. census says about the design workforce

Last week the NEA released research based on its analysis of data from the U.S. Census American Community Survey, a new annual survey tool that complements the decennial census. Its results highlight a number of characteristics of the U.S. design community. The design categories are aggregated to include commercial and industrial designers; fashion designers; floral designers; graphic designers; interior designers; merchandise displayers; and set and exhibit designers. Still it provides a profile of communication designers, who represent the largest of these disciplines.

The NEA used a five-year data set (2005–2009) to get a large enough sample size for a thorough analysis. Of the 2.1 million Americans identified as artists, designers make up the largest segment of the creative community in the United States, representing 39 percent of artist/creative category, or nearly 830,000 workers. The number of trained communication designers has been estimated by AIGA as 350,000—NEA estimates there are 390,000 with a communication or graphic design degree.

Slightly more than 20 percent of designers reflect a minority race or ethnic characteristic. Fourteen to 16 percent were foreign born—about the rate in the national workforce, but a higher percentage than many of the other disciplines.

NEA reports estimates that 54 percent of the designer category are women. AIGA’s membership is approximately 55 percent women, although we expect that to increase—two-thirds of design students surveyed by AIGA are women.

Complete information is available from the NEA report, Artists and Arts Workers in the United States. Although other data are offered in the analysis, the broad “designer” category masks the relevant data for communication designers.