Creative hobbies reach well beyond sewing and crochet. Official surveys measure participation in crafts, textiles, visual art, writing, design, digital creation, music and performance, but each category has a specific population and recall period. The figures below therefore describe selected creative activities rather than one universal market size or a single definition of “creative hobby.”
Contents
- Adult participation
- Craft, textile and maker activities
- Age and sex patterns
- Children’s participation
- Time commitments
- Learning, volunteering and income
- Trends and geography
Adult participation
Australia’s General Social Survey: Summary Results, Australia, 2025 reports participation during the previous 12 months. Craft was the largest listed creative category at 31.3% of people. Visual-art activities reached 18.8%, while photography reached 11.3%.
Other forms of creative production were less common in the same Australian survey. Writing fiction or non-fiction was reported by 8.8% of people, and 6.8% designed websites, computer games or interactive software. Singing or playing a musical instrument reached 6.1%; dancing reached 5.1%; and fashion, interior or graphic design combined reached 4.9%.
Film-making or editing was reported by 4.7% of people, while 4.3% performed in a drama, comedy, musical or variety act. Writing song lyrics or mixing or composing music reached 4.2%.
These are separate selected cultural-activity categories. They should not be added together: one person may have participated in several activities, and the survey does not turn them into a count of unique hobbyists. The craft figure also does not mean that 31.3% of Australians specifically sewed or crocheted.
Craft, textile and maker activities
The Cultural and creative activities, 2021-22 financial year release gives a narrower Australian craft comparison: 15% of adults participated in craft activities in 2021-22, compared with 14% in 2017-18. This is self-reported participation during the previous 12 months, and craft is one selected activity category.
The U.S. Arts Participation Patterns in 2022 report groups six textile activities together: weaving, crocheting, quilting, needlepoint, knitting and sewing. In the 12 months ending July 2022, 11.7% of U.S. adults aged 18 and over did at least one of these activities. The comparable figure was 11.7% in 2017 and 9.2% in 2020.
The same U.S. 2022 survey measured other maker activities. Leatherwork, metalwork or woodwork was reported by 9.0% of adults, while pottery, ceramics or jewelry was reported by 4.4%. These are personal-creation measures, not sales or business measures.
| Geography and measure | Period | Participation |
|---|---|---|
| Australia, craft activities | 2017-18 | 14% of adults |
| Australia, craft activities | 2021-22 | 15% of adults |
| United States, weaving/crocheting/quilting/needlepoint/knitting/sewing | 2020 | 9.2% of adults aged 18+ |
| United States, same six textile activities | 2017 | 11.7% of adults aged 18+ |
| United States, same six textile activities | 12 months ending July 2022 | 11.7% of adults aged 18+ |
| England, crafts | 2017-18 | 24% of adults aged 16+ |
| England, crafts | 2018-19 | 23% of adults aged 16+ |
The England figures come from the Ad hoc statistical analysis: 2019/20 Quarter 4, using the Taking Part estimate for craft participation in the previous 12 months. Because the surveys use different definitions, age thresholds and fieldwork periods, these percentages are useful as country-specific indicators, not as a league table.
Age and sex patterns
Australia’s 2021-22 cultural-activity data shows participation in at least one selected cultural activity, rather than craft alone. The rate was 41.4% among people aged 15-24, 35.4% among those aged 25-34 and 31.4% among those aged 35-44. It was 29.0% for ages 45-54, 29.5% for ages 55-64 and 28.0% for people aged 65 and over.
The same measure was 39.1% for Australian women and 25.1% for Australian men. This difference should not be read as a craft-only sex gap because the selected measure combines multiple creative activities.
For craft specifically, the Australian survey reported 23% participation among women in 2021-22 and 7% among men. The definition remains the survey’s selected craft category, not a complete inventory of sewing, crochet or other textile practices.
The age pattern is therefore definition-sensitive. A broad selected-cultural-activity measure was highest among Australians aged 15-24, while craft participation was reported separately by sex. Neither result identifies why participation differs, and the supplied survey figures do not establish causal explanations.
Children’s participation
Among Australian children aged 5-14, 59% participated in a creative activity outside school hours in 2021-22, according to the ABS Cultural and creative activities, 2021-22 financial year. The definition includes arts and crafts, music and creative writing. Arts and crafts alone reached 39%, while creative writing reached 19%.
Participation differed by sex: 67% of girls aged 5-14 took part in creative activities, compared with 52% of boys. For arts and crafts, the reported rate was 45.5% among children aged 5-8, 39.2% among those aged 9-11 and 29.4% among those aged 12-14.
The earlier comparison for arts and crafts was 38.8% of Australian children aged 5-14 in 2017-18, versus 38.8% in 2021-22. Creative writing was reported by 22.5% in 2017-18 and 18.5% in 2021-22. These figures describe outside-school-hours participation and should not be treated as measures of school instruction or proficiency.
Time commitments
The ABS also reports weekly time among Australian children who participated in particular activities. For participating children who did art and craft in 2021-22, 51.1% spent two hours or less per week, 20.8% spent 3-4 hours, 17.0% spent 5-9 hours, 7.7% spent 10-19 hours and 2.6% spent 20 hours or more.
These are conditional percentages: they describe participants, not all children aged 5-14. The distribution is self-reported and does not provide an average number of hours.
Time patterns differed across creative formats. Among children who created digital content, 9.0% spent 10-19 hours per week and 3.5% spent 20 hours or more. Among children who did creative writing, 71.7% spent two hours or less per week. The categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive, so the results should not be used to rank the total time spent on every creative hobby.
Learning, volunteering and income
Creative participation can also be measured through learning and involvement around the activity. The U.S. Arts Participation Patterns in 2022 report found that 29% of adults aged 18 and over learned an art form or subject during the 12 months ending July 2022. This includes formal and informal arts learning; it does not measure whether a person completed a hobby or reached a particular skill level.
In Australia in 2021-22, 15% of people who participated in at least one selected cultural activity volunteered in at least one cultural activity. Ten percent of selected cultural-activity participants received income for their involvement. Both are conditional estimates across selected activities, not craft-specific employment or earnings rates.
Some activity groups had higher reported income associations. Among Australian participants in fashion, interior or graphic design, 35% received income for that involvement. Among participants in film-making or editing, 26% received income. The film-making measure excludes recording personal events, and the design measure combines three design activities.
These figures describe associations within survey categories. They do not show that a hobby caused income, volunteering or another outcome, and they do not provide the amount of income received.
Trends and geography
Across Australia, participation in at least one selected cultural activity rose from 31.4% in 2017-18 to 32.2% in 2021-22. The ABS notes that its 2021-22 12-month questions were collected across July 2020 to June 2022, so the results may reflect COVID-19 effects. This broad measure is not craft alone.
Within Australia, the 2021-22 selected-cultural-activity rate was 45.4% in the Australian Capital Territory, 41.9% in Tasmania and 29.7% in the Northern Territory. These geographic differences use the same broad selected measure, but they do not identify the causes of regional variation.
The U.S. 50 States of Arts Participation: 2022 report adds an adjacent behavior: 17% of U.S. adults attended a craft fair between July 2021 and July 2022, while the estimate for North Dakota was 40%. Craft-fair attendance is not the same as making a craft, so it should not be combined with textile-creation rates.
For interpretation, the main limits are definitional and temporal. Australia-wide 2025 figures come from the General Social Survey; the ABS 2021-22 collection covers a period that overlaps the pandemic; U.S. figures cover adults aged 18 and over; and England’s craft figures cover adults aged 16 and over. None of these sources supplies a directly comparable global market size, spending total or causal measure of wellbeing.