Learn about the types of people who become music therapists. This page goes into detail about the employment, gender, and ethnic ratios of the workplace.
Gender Mix By Career Interest, 2024
This graph shows the distribution of females and males that are interested in becoming a music therapist. Four or five star ratings on CareerExplorer indicate interest.
More women than men are interested in becoming music therapists at a ratio of 1.36 to 1.
Actual Gender Mix, 2024
80% of music therapists are female and 20% are male.
Gender Bias, 2024
This is one of the most compelling statistics we collect. Gender bias shows the difference between gender interest in being a music therapist and the actual gender mix of people in the career.
If there is a significant difference, then it means there is a gender imbalance between those interested in becoming a music therapist and those who end up becoming one.
In this case there are significantly more men interested in becoming a music therapist than those actually working as one. It is hard to pinpoint the exact reasons why, but there are likely various forces at play, from changing interests over time to societal norms and biases.
Ethnic Mix, 2019
The largest ethnic group of music therapists are White, making up 53% of the population. The next highest segments are East Asian and Other, making up 14% and 9% respectively.