The Economics and Demography of American Architects

Our sources

We are happy for any reader to point us to better sources, but so far we are using these:

• The Economic Census (Professional, Scientific and Technical Services) (EC), conducted every five years by the U.S Census Bureau. We have data from this census going back to 1967 (when it was known as the Census of Service Industries); quite a while. Here is what we found.
• The Current Population Survey (CPS), a joint project of the U.S. Census people and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the U.S. Dept of Labor
• The National Compensation Survey conducted by the BLS. Data for architects goes back to 1997.
• The Occupational Employment Statistics program, also by the BLS.
• We also use the Survey of Registered Architects by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB).

Demographic data about American architects

How many American architects are there?

That depends who you ask. The chart below shows data from three sources,

Demographic bloating

We suspect that much of the feeling of malaise in the occupation arises not from economic realities, but from social ones. Quite simply: many years ago, there were very few architects in the USA, and they were very special people. Nowadays you can find any number of architects busking in subways. Not so special!

Here's what we mean. Take a look at the chart below, which shows the number of architects in the United States in terms of architects per million Americans. In 1850, 17 Americans in every million were architects: rare birds indeed. In 1850 an American architect would travel in a fine carriage to his rich client's abode, while most Americans walked to work.

Through 1910–1960 the proportion increases: this is the period during which the American professions as we know them today were created. Then a plateau so that in 1960, 166 Americans in every million were architects. But take a look at what happens in the decades after 1960!

By 2010, there were as many architects in the USA as there were ushers and lobby attendants; or drywall installers (source: OES). And now the architects, and the ushers, and the drywall installers all drive to work. If architects had maintained the same rarity as they had in 1850, today they would be as uncommon as professional mathematicians or commercial divers.

It may be that the feeling of malaise in the occupation has little to do with economics, and more to do with the sociological bloating of the occupation.

Economic data about about American architects

Most economic data about architects (salaries, wages, compensation, etc) only looks at employees. That's fine as far as it goes, but architecture has traditionally been an occupation of the self-employed. According to the BLS screed on architects, one in five architects are (is?) self-employed, about three times the rate for other professionals. This huge segment does not show up in any of the data sources we here at the Key Centre have available.

Some of our sources use ‘medians’, and some ‘means’. Both are often referred to as ‘average’. You really should look up the difference. We prefer the median. Our sources also use different time periods: hourly, weekly, or annual earnings. Why does this matter? Architects may earn a high hourly rate, but if a typical contracting architect only works nine months a year, their annual earnings may be the same as someone on a lower hourly rate who works twelve.

So we cautiously present our results for architectural employees. To eliminate the effects of inflation, we present our data as ratios to the incomes from other occupations.

Results from the National Compensation Survey (NCS)

Our latest data is for 2008. The NCS charts the mean hourly earnings of wage and salary workers in the USA. The NCS does not tell us how many architects it postulates for the USA. Example: In 2005, the mean hourly earnings of an American architectural employee was 162% of a typical American worker.

Architects compared to…	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
All workers	159	164	136	147	148	155	176	180	162	165	154	152	143
Salaried architects' mean hourly earnings compared to all workers.

Results from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program

The OES lists median annual earnings for a very detailed breakdown of American occupations. We provide a few occupations here. Example: In 2005, the median annual earnings of an American architectural employee was 214% that of the median for all workers.

Architects compared to…	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
All workers	–	–	–	205	204	206	210	214	211	215	217	219
Lawyers	61	55	59	62	63	63	64	64	63	64	64	64
Librarians	124	123	126	130	131	131	131	133	131	133	134	135
Dentists	43	44	41	43	46	49	49	50	49	49	49	51
Vets	94	84	86	89	90	90	91	91	89	90	89	90
Carpenters	166	154	161	166	166	168	173	177	176	180	181	184
School bus drivers	254	247	251	252	253	258	259	261	258	261	264	265
Salaried architects' median annual earnings compared to others.

Results from the Current Population Survey (CPS)

The CPS provides data back to 1995. Our latest data is for 2009. The CPS lists median weekly earnings. Example: In 2005, the median weekly earnings of an American architectural employee was 176% that of all American employees.

	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
All	151	155	163	167	167	183	164	165	163	179	176
Professional and related	101	104	110	114	115	126	115	114	120	129	127
Salaried architects' median weekly earnings compared to others.

Compared to…	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
All	166	166	156	159	162
Professional and related	120	121	115	118	114
Salaried architects' median weekly earnings compared to others.

Results from the Economic Census (EC)

We have been studying this data since 1967. Good heavens! We hope to present a full analysis by last quarter of 2011.