Among the 30 largest metro areas in the U.S., Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco host the largest contingents of artists in their workforces, followed by five metros hosting 20 to 40 percent more artists than the national average: Washington, D.C.; Seattle; Boston; Minneapolis-St. Paul; and San Diego. In follow-up work done by Texas researchers on the great recession, they found that Minneapolis-St. Paul posted the highest rate of increase in our artist workforce during the years of the great recession, 2006-09, years when the top three barely held even.