Belgium/ 8.2 Cultural consumption and participation  

8.2.1 Trends and figures

Flemish Community

Table 7:    Share of people who participate in cultural activities at least once a year, 2000, 2006 and 2009

Source:    SCV-surveys. In: VRIND 2010, ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, 2010.

Reading habits: 63% of the population read a book at least once a year (2009).

About half of the population attends a museum, exhibition or a gallery annually. This figure has been fairly stable over the years. More than half of Flemings visited a cinema in 2009. Most visitors participate repeatedly. These results are in line with previous years.

In 2008, 35% of the population visited a library. Library visits have been relatively stable in recent years, although since 2000 there have been fewer registered readers and there are more people who never or very rarely go to the library.

French Community

A recent survey indicated that 20.6% of the population use public libraries.

In 2003, there were 70 cinemas in the Brussels region and 200 in the Walloon region. For this period, visitors to the cinema in Belgium totalled 22 712 732: the total for Brussels was 4 587 850, while the figure for the Walloon Region was 6 967 571 (figures: INS). 

Between 1995 and 2003, there was an increase of 18% in the number of performing arts spectators in Belgium.

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