Arts and crafts participation statistics capture several different things: whether people made crafts, how often they did so, how much time participants spent, and whether adults attended craft fairs or visual arts festivals. Those measures have different populations and reference periods, so they should not be read as interchangeable estimates of one hobby’s popularity.
The figures below come from two National Endowment for the Arts reports. One uses the American Time Use Survey to measure activity on a typical day across 2022–24; the other reports adult arts participation in selected survey years. Together, they provide a focused view of craft-making and related event attendance in the United States.
Contents
- Arts and crafts participation statistics: How common is the hobby on a typical day?
- Arts and crafts participation statistics: Which crafts do U.S. adults make?
- Arts and crafts participation statistics: How craft-making changed from 2002 to 2022
- Arts and crafts participation statistics: How craft-making differs by metro residence
- Craft fair attendance statistics: Trends by year, sex, and age
- Craft fair attendance statistics: Selected metro areas
- Arts and crafts time-use statistics: How long hobby participants spend
- Sources
Arts and crafts participation statistics: How common is the hobby on a typical day?
In 2022–24, 1.7% of Americans aged 15 and over reported doing arts and crafts as a hobby on a typical day. This is a daily participation measure averaged across three years, not the percentage who did any crafting at least once during a year. Someone who crafts occasionally may not appear in a typical-day estimate.
The figure also does not describe all forms of arts participation. It is specifically the time-use category “arts and crafts as a hobby.” The NEA report notes that roughly 2% of people engaged in the activities it discusses on a typical day, including this craft category. The 1.7% figure is the direct estimate for hobby craft-making. NEA Indicator B.4, How Much Time Do Americans Spend on Arts Activities?, page 3 and Figure B4-1.
Arts and crafts participation statistics: Which crafts do U.S. adults make?
The NEA’s 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) breaks out several craft-making forms among U.S. adults. Fiber crafts were the most common of the three listed categories: 11.7% reported weaving, crocheting, quilting, needlework, knitting, or sewing. 8.9% reported leather, wood, or metal work, and 4.4% reported pottery, ceramics, or jewelry work.
These are separate reported categories. They should not be added together to estimate the share of adults who made any craft: a person could make more than one type, and the figures do not establish mutually exclusive groups. The categories also differ in breadth. The fiber category combines several activities, while pottery, ceramics, or jewelry forms another grouped measure. NEA, By All Means, the Arts: A Full Report of the 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, page 51, Table 17.
Arts and crafts participation statistics: How craft-making changed from 2002 to 2022
The SPPA series shows substantial movement between survey years, particularly for fiber crafts. The share of U.S. adults reporting weaving, crocheting, quilting, needlework, knitting, or sewing was 16.0% in 2002, fell to 7.1% in 2008, then stood at 12.7% in 2012, 11.7% in 2017, and 11.7% in 2022. The latest two survey points are level, while the 2022 figure remains below the 2002 result.
Pottery, ceramics, or jewelry work followed a different pattern: 6.9% in 2002, 3.2% in 2008, 4.4% in 2012, 4.1% in 2017, and 4.4% in 2022. The 2022 estimate is higher than the 2008 low but below the 2002 result.
The leather, wood, or metal series has no reported value for 2002 or 2008. Its available observations are 7.7% in 2012, 6.6% in 2017, and 8.9% in 2022. Because the early entries are marked NA, this category supports comparisons only from 2012 onward. These are repeated survey-year estimates, not annual measurements, and the figures do not explain why participation changed. NEA SPPA report, page 51, Table 17.
| Craft category among U.S. adults | 2002 | 2008 | 2012 | 2017 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weaving, crocheting, quilting, needlework, knitting, or sewing | 16.0% | 7.1% | 12.7% | 11.7% | 11.7% |
| Leather, wood, or metal work | NA | NA | 7.7% | 6.6% | 8.9% |
| Pottery, ceramics, or jewelry | 6.9% | 3.2% | 4.4% | 4.1% | 4.4% |
Arts and crafts participation statistics: How craft-making differs by metro residence
In the 2022 SPPA, non-metropolitan adults reported higher participation than metropolitan adults in two of the three listed craft categories. For fiber crafts, the rates were 14.3% among non-metropolitan adults and 11.2% among metropolitan adults. For leather, metal, or woodwork, they were 13.3% and 8.2%, respectively.
Pottery, ceramics, or jewelry work showed a small difference in the other direction: 3.8% among non-metropolitan adults and 4.5% among metropolitan adults. These figures describe reported participation by residence category in 2022. They do not establish why the rates differ, and the table alone does not show whether each difference is statistically significant. NEA SPPA report, page 58, Table 21.
Craft fair attendance statistics: Trends by year, sex, and age
Craft fair or visual arts festival attendance is an event measure, not a measure of making crafts. In the SPPA, attendance among U.S. adult men was 19.5% in 2017 and 13.7% in 2022. Among U.S. adult women, it was 27.8% in 2017 and 20.4% in 2022. In both survey years the reported rate was higher for women than for men; both groups’ 2022 rates were lower than their 2017 rates.
Age-group figures in 2022 show that 15.8% of adults aged 18–24 attended a craft fair or visual arts festival, compared with 20.9% of adults aged 35–44. These selected values do not describe every age group, and they do not by themselves establish an age-related pattern across the full adult population. Attendance figures refer to the combined event category as reported by the SPPA. NEA SPPA report, page 25, Table 5 (sex); page 26, Table 6 (age).
Craft fair attendance statistics: Selected metro areas
The SPPA’s 2022 list of leading metropolitan areas for craft fair and visual arts festival attendance includes San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos, California, at 35.3%; Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington, Minnesota–Wisconsin, at 29.4%; Boston–Cambridge–Newton, Massachusetts–New Hampshire, at 25.9%; and Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, Colorado, at 21.4%.
These are rates for adults in the named metropolitan areas, drawn from the report’s list of top five metro areas for this attendance measure. They are not a ranking of craft-making rates or a complete comparison of every U.S. metro area. NEA SPPA report, page 62, Exhibit 22.
Arts and crafts time-use statistics: How long hobby participants spend
Among people aged 15 and over who did arts and crafts as a hobby in 2022–24, average time spent was 135 minutes per day. This average applies to participants, not everyone in the population. The report excludes travel time from its activity-time measure, so the number describes time spent on the hobby itself under the survey’s definition.
Participant averages varied across the age groups highlighted in the report. People aged 65 and over averaged 168 minutes per day, compared with 99 minutes among participants aged 35–44. Participants under age 25 averaged 117 minutes, while those aged 55–64 averaged 147 minutes.
The report also gives averages by education: participants who had not completed high school spent 107 minutes per day on average; those with a high school diploma or some college spent 158 minutes; and those with an associate’s degree spent 165 minutes. These figures describe time among people who participated, not differences in the likelihood of taking up the hobby. They also do not show that age or education caused a difference in time spent. NEA Indicator B.4, pages 5–6, Figures B4-3 and accompanying demographic discussion.
Taken together, the measures point to distinct aspects of arts and crafts participation: a relatively small share of people engaged in the hobby on a typical day, larger adult shares reported specific craft-making forms in the 2022 SPPA, and participants who did craft on a given day spent more than two hours on average. Craft fair attendance adds a separate measure of cultural outings. Each figure is most useful when read with its population, activity definition, and time period attached.