The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) is the membership organization that unites, represents and serves the nation’s state and jurisdictional arts agencies. Each of the 56 states and jurisdictions has created an agency to support excellence in and access to the arts. As part of NASAA’s efforts, they have compiled the following Creative Economy facts and f igures
- In fiscal year 2009, state arts agencies invested $328 million in creating and sustaining arts infrastructures in communities across the nation.
Source: National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Legislative Appropriations Fact Sheet Fiscal Year 2010 - America’s nonprofit arts industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity every year, resulting in $29.6 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenues.
Source: Americans for the Arts, Arts & Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences, 2007. - The creative sector, whose economic function is to create new ideas or creative content, employs 38 million Americans, or 30 percent of all employed people.
Source: Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class, 2002. - In 2005, 1.99 million identified an artist occupation as their primary job, while another 300,000 reported secondary employment as an artist.
Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Artists in the Workforce, 2008 - In 2008, 612,095 U.S. businesses participated in the production or distribution of art and employed nearly 3 million people.
Source: Americans for the Arts, Creative Industries Report, 2008. - Americans donated more than $307.65 billion to the arts in 2008 through individual giving, estates, foundations and corporations.
Source: Giving USA Foundation, Giving USA, 2009 Press Release. - In 2008, 70.3% of all American leisure travelers participated in at least one aspect of cultural heritage tourism in the past year. This figure outpaces the number of Americans who visited friends or relatives (64.7%) and roughly equals the proportion (73.0%) of travelers staying in a paid lodging. Source: Destination Analysts, Fall 2008 edition of Cultural Heritage Tourism News and State of the American Traveler, 2009
- American consumers spent $12.8 billion ($42.8 per person) on admissions to performing arts events in 2005.
Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Consumer Spending on Performing Arts, 2006 - More people are attending live performing arts events than professional sporting events in 10 major communities across the United States.
Source: Performing Arts Research Coalition, The Value of the Performing Arts in Ten Communities, 2004. - Copyright Industries (businesses that rely on copyrights and produce computer software, films, television programs, and other audio, visual and printed media) accounted for 11% of U.S. gross domestic product ($1.38 trillion).
Source: International Intellectual Property Alliance, Copyright Industries in the US Economy, 2006. - In 2006, nonprofits—including public charities, private foundations, and all other—accounted for 8.1 percent of the wages and salaries paid in the United States.
Source: The Urban Institute, The Nonprofit Sector in Brief, 2008.
For additional information, visit the Creative Economy Resource Center or contact Jesse Rye at NASAA.
