Which Metro Leads Each Creative Career After Local Prices?

This table shows the highest- and lowest-ranked metro for each of seven selected creative occupations after annual median wages are adjusted for local price levels. Each occupation is ranked separately, and only metros with a published May 2025 BLS annual median wage are included. Missing or suppressed estimates are excluded rather than treated as zero.

¹ Creative occupation refers to one of the seven selected BLS occupations. “Special Effects Artists and Animators” is the current BLS title for SOC 27-1014.
² Adjusted annual median is the published BLS annual median wage after adjustment using the metro’s 2024 BEA Regional Price Parity. It expresses purchasing power at national-average prices and is not take-home pay.
³ Top-to-bottom gap is calculated from the underlying unrounded adjusted wages. Because the highest and lowest figures are rounded for display, subtracting the displayed values may produce a slightly different result.
⁴ Metros ranked is the number of study metros with a published annual median wage for that occupation. Missing or suppressed BLS estimates remain unavailable and are excluded from the occupation ranking.
See more in methodology.