Reviewing the Demographics of Landscape Architecture
It’s common knowledge to anyone that’s familiar with the field of landscape architecture in the United States that it is predominantly run by white people (and until the past decade or so, by cis white men). Countless design firms have stated their intention to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive, but in a field as white-dominated as landscape architecture, this objective poses a very steep challenge. To understand just how challenging it will be to broaden the field’s demographics, I searched for data to shed some insight.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE DEGREES AWARDED BY RACE
The most comprehensive data set I found during this quest came from Data USA’s profile on Landscape Architecture, which references the Institute of Education Science’s National Center for Education Statistics (IES NCES), the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education under the US Department Of Education.
According to the Data USA profile*, of the 1,021 degrees awarded in 2017 to US residents, the degrees awarded fell within the following specified categories:
- White — 71% (725 degrees)
- Hispanic/Latino — 9% (93 degrees)
- Asian — 8% (81 degrees)
- African American/Black — 4.6% (47 degrees)
- Two or More Races — 3.6% (37 degrees)
- Unknown — 3.2% (33 degrees)
- Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander — 0.3% (3 degrees)
- American Indian/Alaska Native — 0.2% (2 degrees)
*I removed the category, “nonresident alien,” as more specific information on this group was not available; percentages were also adjusted accordingly.
Needless to say, the findings are sad but probably not surprising to anyone who’s sat in a landscape architecture classroom recently. I’m guessing that unless you went to the two remaining HBCU’s with accredited landscape programs, you were probably with a lot of white students.
THE PROFESSIONAL DEMOGRAPHICS
The most comprehensive data source I found on the profession’s demographics were from the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s (LAF) 2019 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Survey. LAF surveyed 551 individuals and asked about experiences in the workplace, personal feelings about equity and inclusion, and any issues they felt needed to be addressed.
It should be noted that those responding to the survey did so voluntarily; this does not necessarily serve as a representative sampling of the field’s actual breakdown. And although I could not find the perfect data set to represent the field’s true demographics, these numbers are likely reliable in understanding the bigger picture, given that they closely align with those graduating in the Class of 2017.
According to these results, 73% of working landscape professionals in the United States are white. Put another way, basically 3 people out of every 4 landscape design professionals are white and are making decisions for the rest of us about where and how everyone, including the much more diverse US population — and the much, much more diverse cities that landscape architects work in — spend their time in the great outdoors.
Based on this cursory research, we can draw the unsurprising conclusion that landscape architecture firms are not typically racially diverse because they rely on hiring students with bachelor’s and master’s degrees who are predominantly white. To diversify the professional field, we need to think (at least in part) about diversifying those entering the educational system.
So why aren’t more people of color pursuing a degree in landscape architecture? Stay tuned as I dive into some possible answers.
