Creative writing reaches millions of U.S. adults, while writing and authorship also form a measurable, highly self-employed occupation. The latest available figures show a 6.9% creative-writing participation rate in 2022, 135,400 writers and authors jobs in 2024, and a projected 4% occupational increase from 2025 to 2035.
Contents
- Creative writing participation
- Literary reading audiences
- Genres and formats
- How adults learn creative writing
- Employment and work structure
- Pay, industries, and locations
- Degrees and occupational pathways
Creative writing participation
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) reported that 6.6% of U.S. adults did creative writing in 2017. The activity included fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or plays. In the 2020 Arts Basic Survey, the share was 4.9%. By 2022, it had reached 6.9% (NEA, Arts Participation Patterns in 2022).
These years show a participation pattern with a pronounced 2020 low point rather than a smooth, year-by-year trend. The 2022 rate was 0.3 percentage points higher than the 2017 rate. It was 2.0 percentage points higher than the 2020 rate. The NEA reported the 2020-to-2022 increase as 41%.
| Measurement period | U.S. adults doing creative writing |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 6.6% |
| 2020 | 4.9% |
| 2022 | 6.9% |
The figures measure adults who reported doing creative writing, not the number of manuscripts completed, hours spent writing, publications, or income earned. They therefore describe participation in a creative activity across the adult population, including people who do not work as professional writers.
For readers interested in the size of the potential writing community, the 2022 estimate is the most recent participation figure in the cited NEA series. It suggests that creative writing is a broader activity than the occupational count for writers and authors: participation includes hobbyists, students, aspiring authors, and people writing in forms that do not produce a writing job.
Literary reading audiences
Reading behavior provides context for the audience surrounding creative writing. In 2022, 48.5% of U.S. adults read at least one book in print or electronically during the 12 months before the survey (NEA, Arts Participation Patterns in 2022). The comparable share was 54.6% in 2012 and 52.7% in 2017. From 2017 to 2022, the share reading any book declined 4.2 percentage points.
The series is not limited to literary fiction. It covers adults who read at least one book in print or electronically, so the overall book measure includes multiple subjects and formats. The result is useful as a broad reading-audience indicator, but it should not be treated as a direct estimate of the market for creative-writing books.
A narrower measure tracks novels and short stories. In 2022, 37.6% of U.S. adults read novels or short stories, the lowest share recorded in the cited survey series. The share was 45.2% in 2012 and 41.8% in 2017. Between 2017 and 2022, it declined 4.2 percentage points.
The two trends should be kept distinct. “Any book” includes all book subjects, while novels and short stories capture a literary category more closely connected to fiction readership. Neither percentage measures the number of titles read or the amount of time spent reading.
Genres and formats
The NEA’s 2022 measures show different audience sizes across literary forms. Poetry was read by 9.2% of U.S. adults in 2022, compared with 11.7% in 2017 and 6.7% in 2012. Plays were read by 2.4% in 2022, compared with 3.7% in 2017 and 2.9% in 2012 (NEA, Arts Participation Patterns in 2022). These are reading measures, not writing-participation measures.
The survey also captures audio and other media. In 2022, 51.9% of U.S. adults read books and/or listened to audiobooks. Audiobooks alone reached 18.5%. For novels and short stories consumed through media, including reading and listening, the share was 43.2%. Another 14% consumed programs or podcasts about books or writers.
| 2022 literary-audience measure | Share of U.S. adults |
|---|---|
| Read any book in print or electronically | 48.5% |
| Read novels or short stories | 37.6% |
| Read poetry | 9.2% |
| Read plays | 2.4% |
| Read books and/or listened to audiobooks | 51.9% |
| Listened to audiobooks | 18.5% |
| Read and/or listened to novels or short stories | 43.2% |
| Consumed programs or podcasts about books or writers | 14% |
The format measures show why a print-or-electronic reading percentage does not describe the entire audience for literary work. Audiobook listening and book-related programs are separate reported behaviors. They expand the ways adults can encounter books and writers, but the supplied figures do not establish how many people overlap across these categories.
How adults learn creative writing
Formal instruction was one route into creative writing for 1.9% of U.S. adults in 2022. A larger 3.6% learned creative writing through means other than classes or lessons. When the two routes are combined, 4.7% learned creative writing either through classes or lessons or through other means (NEA, Arts Participation Patterns in 2022).
The combined percentage should not be added to the class-only and other-means percentages as though the groups were necessarily separate. The 4.7% figure is the reported either/or measure, while 1.9% and 3.6% describe the individual routes. The data also do not specify which “other means” adults used.
These figures distinguish learning from participation. The 6.9% participation rate covers adults who did creative writing in 2022. The 4.7% learning measure covers adults who learned creative writing through one of the reported routes. They answer different questions and should not be used as interchangeable estimates of the writing population.
Employment and work structure
Creative writing as a personal activity is much larger than writing as a job category. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counted about 135,400 writers and authors jobs in 2024 (BLS, Writers and Authors: Occupational Outlook Handbook). Self-employed workers accounted for 63% of those jobs. This high self-employment share is a defining feature of the occupation’s work structure.
The BLS also identified several employing industries. Professional, scientific, and technical services employed 11% of writers and authors in 2024. The information sector employed 9%, and educational services employed 3% (BLS, Writers and Authors: Occupational Outlook Handbook). These percentages describe the industries listed in the occupational profile; they are not a complete breakdown of every possible source of writing work.
The 2024 occupational count and the NEA’s 2022 participation rate have different units. One counts jobs, while the other estimates adults doing an activity. A person can write creatively without holding a writers-and-authors job, and a writers-and-authors job can involve professional writing beyond literary creative work.
Pay, industries, and locations
The median annual wage for U.S. writers and authors was $72,270 in May 2024, according to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (BLS, Writers and Authors: Occupational Outlook Handbook). A separate BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) table reported a $73,690 median annual wage in May 2023 for wage-and-salary writers and authors (BLS, Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2023). The measures come from different periods and statistical programs, so they should not be presented as one unchanged series.
The May 2023 OEWS mean hourly wage was $42.11 and the mean annual wage was $87,590. The annual wage distribution was $40,900 at the 10th percentile, $52,660 at the 25th percentile, $73,690 at the 50th percentile, $100,990 at the 75th percentile, and $148,240 at the 90th percentile. The table estimated 49,450 wage-and-salary jobs. Its employment relative standard error was 8.2%, and its wage relative standard error was 1.8%.
| May 2023 OEWS wage point | Annual wage |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $40,900 |
| 25th percentile | $52,660 |
| 50th percentile | $73,690 |
| 75th percentile | $100,990 |
| 90th percentile | $148,240 |
Industry results varied. Motion picture and video industries employed 2,820 writers and authors at a mean annual wage of $129,930. Independent artists, writers, and performers employed 5,250 at $108,620. Newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishers employed 4,830 at $73,740. Advertising, public relations, and related services employed 6,560 at $79,200. Media streaming distribution services, social networks, and other media networks and content providers employed 2,730 at $119,150 (BLS, Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2023). These are industry-specific employment and mean-wage estimates for May 2023, not guarantees for individual writers.
State employment also varied in May 2024. California had the highest state employment level in the supplied BLS data, with 8,950 writers and authors jobs. New York had 5,980, and North Carolina had 2,170 (BLS, Data tables for OEWS charts). The figures describe job counts by state, not the location of every self-employed writer or the number of people participating in creative writing as a hobby.
Degrees and occupational pathways
An English degree is one educational pathway associated with writing, but the degree-holder population is much broader than the writers-and-authors occupation. In 2023, the United States had 1,943,540 employed people with an English degree, and their median wage was $60,000 (BLS, Field of degree: English). Nineteen percent worked part time. Sixty-three percent were in occupations requiring at least a bachelor’s degree, and 48% had an advanced degree.
Writers and authors accounted for 2% of English degree holders in the occupational table. The same table reported that 31% of writers and authors had an advanced degree in 2023 (BLS, Field of degree: English). These measures do not say that an English degree is required for writing work; they show the educational and occupational composition reported for the degree field.
The BLS projects employment of writers and authors to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035. It projects an average of 11.9 thousand annual openings during that period (BLS, Occupational projections and worker characteristics). The projection is a forecast, not a count of confirmed future jobs. Annual openings can include opportunities created by growth as well as openings associated with workers leaving the occupation.
Taken together, the figures describe several connected but different layers: creative writing is practiced by 6.9% of U.S. adults in the 2022 survey; literary audiences use print, electronic, audio, and program formats; most 2024 writers-and-authors jobs were self-employed; and the BLS expects modest occupational growth with 11.9 thousand average annual openings from 2025 to 2035.