Graphic Design Statistics (How Many Graphic Designers Are There?)

Wish to study extra in regards to the state of graphic design this yr? We’ve acquired you coated.

On this submit, we’ll have a look at all an important graphic design statistics that inform us extra about this inventive business, the individuals who work in it, the software program they use, and the businesses that rent them. 

Plus, we’ll be revealing the most recent graphic design traits, and a complete lot extra. Prepared? Let’s get began!

What number of graphic designers are there?

In accordance with the very best knowledge we might discover, not less than half one million graphic designers are employed globally. Of these, greater than half (265k) are employed within the US and the overwhelming majority work freelance.

What number of graphic design jobs are there?

In accordance with IBISWorld’s business evaluation, the worldwide graphic design business employs 507,690 folks. This implies there are over half one million graphic design jobs on the market.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics studies 265,000 graphic design jobs within the US alone in 2021. There are additionally round 24,800 projected graphic designer job openings within the US yearly. Freelance graphic designers account for 90% of business jobs. 

Who employs graphic designers?

The biggest graphic designer employers within the US are:

• Self-employed employees – 19%
• Specialised design providers – 9%
• Promoting, PR, & associated providers – 9%
• Printing & associated assist actions – 7%
• Newspaper, e book, periodical, & listing publishers – 5%

What sectors do graphic designers work in?

In accordance with Zippia, half of all graphic designers within the US work within the personal sector:

• 50% of graphic designers are employed within the personal sector
• 39% of graphic designers are employed within the public sector
• 10% of graphic designers are employed within the schooling sector
• 1% of graphic designers are employed within the authorities sector.

How usually do graphic designers depart their jobs?

Turnover amongst graphic designers within the US is quicker than in lots of different occupations. Over half of graphic designers depart their jobs within the first 2 years.

• 24% of graphic designers change jobs within the first yr
• 30% of graphic designers change jobs inside 1-2 years
• 12% of graphic designers change jobs inside 3-4 years
• 15% of graphic designers change jobs inside 5-7 years
• 7% of graphic designers change jobs inside 8-10 years
• 12% of graphic designers change jobs inside 11+ years

Prime 10 industries that rent graphic designers 

Round 17% of graphic designers within the US are employed by Fortune 500 corporations, making this the highest business that hires graphic designers. 

Media is the second greatest business that hires graphic designers, accounting for 14% of all jobs within the house.

1. Fortune 500 – 17%
2. Media – 14%
3. Retail – 11%
4. Skilled – 10%
5. Expertise – 10%
6. Training – 8%
7. Manufacturing – 5%
8. Finance – 4%
9. Web – 3%
10. Telecommunication – 3%

Will graphic designers change into out of date?

Regardless of developments in AI expertise, it’s unlikely that graphic designers will ever change into out of date. 

Round 24.8k new graphic design jobs are predicted to change into accessible yearly within the US, which suggests expert designers will nonetheless be in demand within the close to future. Nonetheless, this demand isn’t rising as shortly as another sectors. 

Demand for graphic designers is barely predicted to develop by 3% over the following decade (2021-2031). That is two proportion factors decrease than the typical throughout occupations, which stands at 5%.

What’s the work/life stability of a graphic designer?

Graphic designers’ work/life stability is rated 3.7/5 on Glassdoor, which is fairly good. For comparability, the typical work-life stability ranking throughout all corporations was 3.2 in 2015.

Sources:  IBISWorld², Bureau of Labor Statistics, Zippia, Glassdoor²

Graphic designer demographics

Most graphic designers within the US are over 30 years outdated. Over three-quarters are white, and over two-thirds are holders of Bachelor’s diploma. There are barely extra feminine graphic designers than male, although the gender break up is pretty even.

Graphic designers by gender

Curiously, graphic design appears to be probably the most balanced industries on the subject of gender, with an virtually 50/50 male-to-female ratio.

• 50.2% of graphic designers are feminine
• 49.8% of graphic designers are male

Whereas this exhibits that there are barely extra feminine graphic designers than males, the distinction is simply 0.4%. This starkly contrasts to many different professions, the place the gender break up is rather more pronounced.

For instance, exhibit builders within the US overwhelmingly are typically male (93%), whereas the overwhelming majority of adorning consultants are feminine (91%).

Graphic designer ages

Most graphic designers within the US are over 30. In accordance with the graphic design statistics:

• 39% are over 40 years outdated
• 34% are 30-40 years outdated
• 27% are 20-30 years outdated

Graphic designer schooling ranges

Most graphic designers are educated on the College stage, with over two-thirds holding a Bachelor’s diploma:

• 68% of graphic designers maintain a Bachelor’s diploma
• 23% of graphic designers maintain an Affiliate diploma
• 3% of graphic designers maintain a Grasp’s diploma
• 3% of graphic designers maintain a Excessive Faculty Diploma
• 3% of graphic designers maintain different levels

Graphic designer ethnicities

Round three-quarters of graphic designers within the US are White, making this the ethnic majority within the career. 

Whereas this is likely to be considerably anticipated on condition that White Individuals are additionally the nation’s largest ethnic group, it’s nonetheless proportionally better in comparison with the inhabitants as a complete. Solely 57.8% of your entire US inhabitants is White, in comparison with 76.1% of graphic designers.

• White – 76.1%
• Hispanic or Latino – 10.2%
• Asian – 7.6%
• Black or African American – 3.5%
• Unknown – 2.3%
• American Indian and Alaska Native – 0.3%

Most typical overseas languages spoken by graphic designers

English is the first language spoken by most graphic designers within the US. Amongst those who communicate overseas languages:

• 49.7% communicate Spanish
• 9.6% communicate French
• 5.8% communicate Chinese language
• 4.8% communicate Mandarin
• 4.3% communicate Japanese
• 25.8% communicate Different

Sources: Zippia

How a lot do graphic designers earn?

Graphic designer earnings range wildly relying on the nation. The common graphic designer earns round $50k per yr within the US. However in India, the typical designer solely earns round $3.5k per yr (₹24,500/month). 

The quantity graphic designers earn additionally varies relying on specialization, position, and years of expertise.

What’s the typical graphic designer wage?

The median graphic designer wage within the US was $50,710 in Could 2021. That is better than the typical throughout all occupations, which was $45,760.

Nonetheless, there’s a giant distinction between the highest and backside finish of the pay scale. The highest 10% of graphic designers earned over $98,260 in 2021, whereas the underside 10% earned lower than $31,310.

How a lot do graphic designers cost per hour?

The common hourly graphic designer wage within the US is $24.38 per hour, based on the most recent graphic design statistics.

Do male graphic designers earn extra?

Though extra graphic designers are feminine, male graphic designers are inclined to earn extra on common.

• The common male graphic designer earns $52,649 per yr
• The common feminine graphic designer earns $49,963 per yr
• Girls earn $0.95 for each $1 males earn.

Common graphic design wage by nation

Graphic designers in developed nations with increased common incomes are inclined to earn considerably greater than these in creating nations. For instance, graphic designers within the US earn over 10x as a lot monthly as these in India, based on knowledge from Glassdoor:

• US – $52,866/yr
• UK – £29,611/yr
• Canada – CA$51,162/yr
• Australia – A$65,000/yr
• South Africa – ZAR 15,343/month
• India – ₹24,500/month
• China – CN¥11,142/month

Common graphic design wage by position

• Senior graphic designer – $71,417/yr 
• Entry stage graphic designer – $40,148/yr
• Freelance graphic designer – $64,409/yr

Highest-paying graphic design specializations

There are a lot of totally different specializations inside graphic design. Graphic designers focusing on product design and UX design earn essentially the most, with common salaries exceeding $100k. 

Graphic design salaries within the US by specialization:

• Product designer – $108,906/yr
• Net design – $61,077/yr
• UI designer – $98,795/yr
• UX design – $110,392/yr
• Movement graphics designer – $68,392/yr  
• Packaging design – $62,896/yr
• Recreation design – $75,080/yr
• Advertising design – $61,397/yr
• Emblem design – $63,698/yr
• Illustrator – $58,257/yr

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Zippia, Glassdoor¹, Glassdoor²

How large is the graphic design market?

Subsequent, let’s have a look at some graphic design statistics that inform us extra in regards to the dimension of the graphic design market and the way it’s modified over time.

World graphic design market dimension

In accordance with knowledge from IBISWorld, the worldwide graphic design business market dimension is $43.4 billion as of 2022. It’s additionally the Ninth-ranked international enterprise exercise business by market dimension.

Progress of the worldwide graphic design market

The worldwide graphic design business grew by 3.7% from 2022 to 2023. Nonetheless, if we have a look at the typical development fee over an extended interval, it’s much less spectacular. The graphic design market solely grew by 0.6% per yr on common since 2017, underperforming the worldwide financial system.

This unimpressive development fee is basically because of the fall in market dimension from 2019 to 2020 when the worth fell from $44.27 billion to $39.76 billion, which was little question because of the financial results of the worldwide pandemic outbreak.

Since then, the market has recovered considerably, although it’s nonetheless not as giant as at its peak in 2019 (44.27 billion)

World graphic design market development over time:

• 2012: 35.65b
• 2013: 35.73b
• 2014: 37.43b
• 2015: 39.18b
• 2016: 41.09b
• 2017: 42.07b
• 2018: 43.25b
• 2019: 44.27b
• 2020: 39.76b
• 2021: 41.81b
• 2022: 43.36b

US graphic design market dimension

The US graphic design market reached $14.1 billion in 2022. 

Progress of the US graphic design market

The graphic design market within the US grew by 2.3% in 2022. That is barely under the typical yearly development over the past 5 years: 2.6%. 

Curiously, the US graphic design market didn’t appear to be as badly affected by the pandemic as the worldwide graphic design market as there was no decline from 2019 to 2020.

US graphic design market development over time:

• 2012: 12.5b
• 2013: 12.55b
• 2014: 12.57b
• 2015: 12.45b
• 2016: 12.06b
• 2017: 12.41b
• 2018: 12.82b
• 2019: 13.02b
• 2020: 13.05b
• 2021: 13.80b
• 2022: 14.12b

Sources: IBISWorld¹, IBISWorld²

Graphic design traits

There’s no quantitative knowledge we will look to so as to discover out the most important design traits of the yr. And also you’ll get a special opinion about what’s trending relying on who you ask. 

With that in thoughts, listed below are the highest graphic design traits for 2023 as recognized by numerous publications:

Prime 5 graphic design traits based on Later:

1. Fluorescent Colour Palettes

2. 60s & 80s iconography

3. Contrasting fonts

4. Maximalism

5. Cloud motifs

Prime 5 graphic design traits based on Nascent Design:

1. 90s nostalgia

2. Typography with persona

3. Psychedelic imaginative and prescient

4. 2D & 3D mashup

5. Anti-design

Prime 5 graphic design traits based on InDesign:

1. Embossed Packaging

2. Pictotype Logos

3. Refined Retro

4. Noisy Gradients

5. Model Mascots

Sources: Later, Nascent, InDesign

Graphic design in advertising

Graphic design is commonly utilized in advertising to advertise manufacturers and merchandise in a visually-appealing approach. Listed here are some fascinating graphic design statistics regarding advertising, as revealed in current surveys and studies.

• 50.5% of entrepreneurs say visible content material is essential to their advertising technique
• And an extra 13.1% say their technique is nothing with out visible content material.
• 80% of small companies fee the design of their branding and advertising supplies as both “vital” or “crucial”
• Solely 3% mentioned design is “not vital”
• 73% of corporations put money into graphic design for model differentiation
• 57.9% of entrepreneurs pivoted their content material advertising technique final yr. Of these, virtually half both branded or created a brand new visible id.
• 51.4% of entrepreneurs mentioned that between 91 and 200% of their content material contained visuals.
• The commonest kind of visible content material utilized by entrepreneurs in 2021 was unique graphics (like infographics and illustrations). 36.4% of entrepreneurs mentioned they used unique graphics.
• Authentic graphics was additionally the best-performing visible content material kind in 2021, based on 41.1% of entrepreneurs.

How lengthy do entrepreneurs spend on graphic design?

In accordance with a current survey, virtually half of all entrepreneurs spend lower than 5 hours producing visible content material (i.e. graphic design):

• 23.4% spend lower than hours
• 24.3% spend 2-5 hours
• 19.6% spend 5-10 hours
• 14.9% spend 10-15 hours
• 17.8% spend 20+ hours

What do entrepreneurs use to create visible content material?

When requested how they create visible content material:

• 35.5% of surveyed entrepreneurs mentioned they use an internet device or graphic maker
• 28% of entrepreneurs mentioned they’ve an in-house designer create it
• 18.7% of entrepreneurs mentioned they use superior design software program (e.g. Adobe Illustrator)
• 17.8% of entrepreneurs mentioned they use a contract designer

Prime graphic design challenges in advertising

• 31.8% of surveyed entrepreneurs say the most important problem in producing participating visible content material is consistency
• 26.2% say sourcing knowledge and statistics or writing the copy is the toughest half
• 22.4% say discovering the correct structure is the most important problem
• And 19.6% say creating an amazing design is the toughest half

How a lot ought to entrepreneurs spend on graphic design?

• 26.2% of surveyed entrepreneurs mission spending 21-30% of their finances on creating visible content material
• 28% of surveyed entrepreneurs say they spend most on the ‘design’ a part of creating visible content material

The place do companies use visible content material?

• 30% of surveyed companies use visible content material in weblog posts
• 18.6% of surveyed companies use visible content material on Fb
• 15.9% of surveyed companies use visible content material on Linkedin
• 13.1%  of surveyed companies use visible content material on Instagram
• 13.1%  of surveyed companies use visible content material on touchdown pages
• 9.3%  of surveyed companies use visible content material in print/branding supplies

Sources: Venngage, 99designs, Adobe Digital Design 

Colour in graphic design

Colour is without doubt one of the most vital elements of graphic design. 

Research present that individuals make their minds up about folks and merchandise inside 90 seconds, and 62-90% of this preliminary evaluation relies solely on shade. Not solely that, however utilizing a signature shade can increase model consciousness by as a lot as 80%. 

Black appears to be the most well-liked shade utilized in brand design, with over 34% of the highest 100 international manufacturers utilizing it. Blue is one other in style alternative, whereas brown is the least in style alternative.

Prime colours utilized in brand design by the highest 100 international manufacturers:

• 34% use black
• 30% use blue
• 30% use purple
• 9% used yellow
• 7% used inexperienced
• 6% used gray/silver
• 5% used orange
• 2% used brown

Sources: Reboot Online, Research Gate

Graphic design software program statistics

Adobe dominates the graphic design software program market. The vast majority of graphic design professionals makes use of their Inventive Cloud merchandise. Different in style graphic design instruments embrace SketchUp and cloud-based platforms like Canva.

What’s the most well-liked graphic design software program?

In accordance with Datanyze, Photoshop is the main graphics software program, with over 43.81% of the market share:

Prime graphic design software program options by market share:

• Photoshop – 43.8%
• Illustrator – 14.5%
• InDesign – 28.7%
• SketchUp – 3.9%
• CorelDRAW – 2% 
• Canva – 1.8%

Keep in mind that it’s not clear how correct these market share estimations are, as they appear to be based mostly on the variety of corporations that use them as recognized by Datanyze, reasonably than complete customers. So take them with a pinch of salt.

Adobe statistics

Adobe powers many of the hottest software program graphic design professionals use (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Results, and many others.). Listed here are some statistics about this software program supplier.

• Adobe earned 15.79 billion in income in 2021
• Over 90% of the world’s inventive professionals use Adobe merchandise
• Adobe Inventory provides over 300+ million inventive belongings, together with vectors, illustrations, images, and many others.
• Adobe’s on-line inventive neighborhood Behance has over 30 million members

Canva statistics

Canva is without doubt one of the hottest cloud-based graphic design instruments, rising quickly in the previous few years. Listed here are some Canva statistics that inform us extra:

• Canva was valued at $40 billion within the final trimester of 2021. That is up from $19 billion in April 2021. Since then, Canva has doubled its revenues.
• Canva’s revenues have been predicted to exceed $1 billion by the tip of 2021.
• Canva has over 75 million month-to-month energetic customers spanning 190 nations
• 3.5 billion designs have been created with Canva in 2021
• 150 designs are created on Canva each second
• 23 designs are created on Canva’s iPhone and iPad apps each second
• 8 billion designs have been created on Canva in complete.
• There are over 100 million inventory pictures, graphic components, and movies in Canva’s library 

Sources: Smart Company, Canva, Adobe, Datanyze

Graphic design prices

Subsequent, let’s have a look at some graphic design statistics that inform us in regards to the prices concerned in hiring a graphic designer, and the way a lot companies are keen to pay for design providers.

How a lot ought to corporations pay for graphic design providers?

In accordance with a survey of small companies, most aren’t keen to spend over $500 on their logos:

• 65% of small corporations pays as much as $500 for a brand
• 20% of small corporations pays as much as $1000 for a brand
• 15% of small corporations will spend over $1,000 for a brand

However apparently, the info additionally exhibits that corporations who spend extra to change into design-driven are 69% extra prone to exceed their objectives. 

How usually do companies outsource graphic design?

• 50% of surveyed small companies deal with graphic design work in-house
• 21% of surveyed small companies outsource graphic design work to freelancers
• 18% of surveyed small companies run crowdsourced design contests
• 7% of surveyed small companies outsource graphic design work to design businesses

Supply: 99designs, Adobe Digital Design 

Fascinating details about graphic design

• In a survey of small companies, Apple was most steadily named as the corporate with the very best brand. 
• Different high-ranking firm logos included Nike, Coca-Cola, Google, and FedEx
• The Walmart brand was most steadily picked because the worst brand by small companies.
• Different low-ranking logos included Pepsi, Microsoft, and IBM.
• The mind processes pictures 60,000 occasions quicker than textual content. It is because the human mind deciphers the totally different components of a picture concurrently, whereas language is decoded in a linear, sequential method, which takes considerably longer to course of.

Sources: MIS, 99designs

Ultimate ideas

That concludes our roundup of graphic design statistics. Hopefully, these stats have given you some meals for thought.

As these stats present, graphic designers are nonetheless very a lot in demand. And whereas the business is continually evolving—with new traits, new software program, and new expertise altering the way in which designers do their jobs—it’s possible that there’ll nonetheless be loads of work in graphic design for years to come back.

Nonetheless hungry for information? Take a look at our roundup of social media statistics to learn the way the social panorama is altering.