Overall, we had 8664 respondents, making this the largest survey ever conducted on the topic of equity in architecture in the U.S. and possibly globally as well. The study took multiple points into consideration including gender, race/ethnicity. Of the respondents – those identifying as female make up approximately 50% of respondents (represented in orange), while those identifying as male, make up approximately 50% (represented in blue). We also had a small number of respondents identify as a non-binary gender

While we had a relatively even gender representation in our respondent pool, there was little racial or ethnic diversity, with about 90% of respondents describing themselves as “white or Caucasian.” Data from the AIA diversity survey and from NCARB suggests that this is fairly representative of the current level of diversity that exists within the field. (which is less than 15% people of color)

The current career status of respondents are compared along with race/ethnicity. The majority of our respondents are currently practicing architecture, either within a firm or as a sole practitioner. There are more people of color represented as practicing in a firm than as sole practitioners. We did have a significant number of respondents, shown in light blue and orange, who weren’t working in one of these settings, and may have been working in a related field or in another industry, providing full-time care for a family member, studying, unemployed, or retired. We’ll discuss the experiences of this population, which we’ve called “beyond architecture”, later in this presentation. 

Our respondents’ geographic location of employment was also fairly representative of the distribution of architectural professionals in the country, with heavy concentrations of respondents in states like California, New York, and Illinois. Overall, we received survey responses from all 50 states, as well as from foreign countries on six continents.