It's no secret that the workforce can be tough for those in the creative industry.
Artists, writers, musicians, designers — though these careers are much-needed, the pay can be low and the competition can be tremendous in some parts of the country.
It's best for creative professionals to carefully consider their location if they want the best possible salary in the lowest possible cost-of-living location, as a $40,000 salary can stretch much further in, say, Austin, Texas, than New York City.
Personal finance site Smartasset analyzed the most favorable cities for creative professionals in the US. Recognizing more than 28 professions — including architect, multimedia artist, choreographer, and painter — they evaluated the affordability and creative culture in 176 of the largest cities in the country, providing every city with a score for either category.
A city with a low cost of living yielded a favorable affordability score, and a city with a high percentage of creative workers earned a high creative culture score. Cities with a "Perfect 100" affordability score demonstrate a cost of living that is 85% of the national average or lower. Cities with a "Perfect 100" creative culture score have at least 125 creative workers for every 10,00o — while a city with 10 or fewer creatives per 10,000 received a score of zero.
According to the results, creative professionals should steer clear of the coasts when looking to excel in their career and save money. The East and West coasts — namely, where the big job markets are, like in California and the Northeast — prove to be too expensive to live comfortably on the average artist's salary. In fact, the only coastal city to make the cut was Durham, North Carolina.
Here are the top 10:
Click here to read more about why each of these cities made the Top 10 list.
