Finland/ 8.2 Cultural consumption and participation  

8.2.1 Trends and figures

There are at least five ways to measure and assess participation in cultural life: household expenditure resulting from the purchase of cultural goods and services, level of participation (how often people visit cultural and art institutions and events), pursuit of amateur activity (yes / no), domestic leisure time use, time used for listening to music, reading etc., and audiences / sales / box office figures in terms of how many visitors different cultural and art institutions attract.

Household consumption of culture

Statistics Finland delineates from household consumption survey data two different subsets of cultural household expenditure. The wider is labelled "culture and leisure-time consumption" and the narrower labelled "culture and media consumption". The narrower corresponds to the conception used by EUROSTAT, which was used in chapter 6.1, as different modes of financing were reviewed. According to Statistics Finland's most recent 2006 data, the average household expenditure in Finland was 1 638 EUR or considerably higher than the 1 236 EUR of EUROSTAT. Correspondingly, the national aggregate figure was also higher, four billion instead of three billion EUR. The difference is not due only to a one-year time difference, but the EUROSTAT figures are expressed at PPS-EUR. In any case, the main message of Statistics Finland and the EUROSTAT-survey are the same: most of the Finnish household cultural expenditure accrues from newspaper purchases and purchases of media equipment and other information technologies. As the total household expenditure in 2001-2006 grew 18%, the growth of total cultural expenditure was 33%.

Level of cultural participation

Table 18 presents some participation data. The intervals in time series are unequal because time use surveys are carried out irregularly. It seems, however, that during the last ten years visiting intensity has somewhat increased and "never visiting" has decreased more significantly. The factors causing these trends are most likely increased urbanisation and enhanced and diversified supply of festival and summer events.

Table 18:   Visits to concerts, cinema, theatre, opera, art exhibitions / museums in 1981, 1991, 1999 and 2009 in a sample of Finnish population 10-64+years of age

Source:     Finnish Official Statistics, Time use study, (net publication), ISSN=1799-5639. Helsinki: Statistics Finland: http://www.stat.fi/til/akay/tau.html.

During the last tem years visiting intensity has somewhat increased and "never visiting" has decreased more significantly. The factors causing these trends are most likely increased urbanisation and enhanced arts education.

Amateur pursuit of arts

Weak trends can also be observed in the case amateur activity (Table 19). The most distinct growth can be noticed in the case of writing, photography and video shooting. The increase in amateur authorship might be due to an increased number of small publishing houses where professional authors might find new commercial publication opportunities. New digital equipment, lowering of technology prices and the easy transmission of pictorial material through the Internet and mobile phones probably explains the increased interest in photography and video-making.

Table 19:   Amateur art and creative cultural activities in %, 1981, 1991, 1999 and 2009 in surveys of population 10-64 years of age *

Source:     Finnish Official Statistics, Time use study, (net publication), ISSN=1799-5639.Helsinki: Statistics Finland: http://www.stat.fi/til/akay/tau.html.
*               Yes / no response to question "Do you pursue xxx activity?"

Leisure time use of culture at home

Table 20 provides data on three main leisure time uses of culture at home. There has been a significant decline in the percentages for listening to the radio and reading in the 10 year period.

Table 20:   Daily use of time for cultural and media activities in 1979, 1987, 1999 and 2009 in survey of population 10-64 years of age

Source:     Finnish Official Statistics, time use-study, net publication, ISSN=1799-5639, Helsinki: Statistics Finland, http://www.stat.fi/til/akay/2009/02/akay_2009_02_2011-02-17_tau_001_fi.html.
Note:        The respondents of the survey monitored their predefined daily activities for a time span of two days.

Table 21 bears witness that leisure time use of the computer has substantially increased during the last ten years. The present use might be even higher because, according to an international comparative survey, 82% of the Finnish respondents of 16-75 years of age had used the Internet during the preceding three months. In this measure, Finland was among the seven top European countries.

Table 22 takes us closer to more specific cultural uses of the computer. The two most frequently adopted categories of "cultural use" of the Internet are online distribution of digital cultural products and communicating through social media. In the Table the most popular cultural uses are in italics.

Table 21:   Frequency of using computer in leisure time in 1999 and 2009, % of the survey respondents of 20-64 years of age

Table 22:   Expressed purposes of Internet use in Finland as a percentage of Internet users, 2009

Source:     Finnish Official Statistics, time use-study, net publication, ISSN=1799-5639, Helsinki: Statistics Finland, http://www.stat.fi/til/akay/2009/02/akay_2009_02_2011-02-17_tau_001_fi.html

Audiences / Sales / box office figures

Tables 23-28 provide short time series of the supply and demand changes in performing arts, museums and in film production and book publishing. Because time intervals are irregular and the supply and demand measures rough, one cannot make any reliable observations about business fluctuations – especially as some of the tops and dips in performing arts and museums are due to opening of a new house and closing performances because of repairs. Still, one can propose an observation that may have relevance from the point of view of cultural policies. Despite the above mentioned irregularities the aggregate supply (performances) and demand (sold tickets) vary in performing arts and the museum sector rather little in observation time or, in other terms, the systems are immune to any "creative destruction". This stability is probably due to the formula-based public support system. In book publishing the digit publication seems to imbalance the system, although greater losses are caused by the end of "the Harry Potter effect". In the cinema sector we can notice some audience competition between foreign and domestic films, where domestic films are gaining ground.

Table 23:   Performances and ticket sales of the main theatres (The National Theatre and receivers of formula-based subsidy), 1991, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010

Source:     Statistics Finland, Kulttuuritilastot / Cultural Statistics 2011, 83.

Table 24:   Professionally managed museums (administrative units*) and their visitors in 1993, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010

Source:     Statistics Finland, Kulttuuritilastot / Cultural Statistics 2011, 41; Statistics Finland, Kulttuuritilastot / Cultural Statistics 2001, 136.
*               One unit can administer several museum sites.

Table 25:   Major symphony orchestras*: concerts and audience in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010

Source:     Statistics Finland, Kulttuuritilastot / Cultural Statistics 2011, 106.
*               The performances of the National Opera are not included in the statistics.

Table 26:   Cinemas and their audiences in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2004 and 2010

Source:     Statistics Finland, Kulttuuritilastot / Cultural Statistics 2011, 127.

Table 27:   Book sales by genre in 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 in million EUR

Source:     The Finnish Book Publishers' Association, http://tilastointi.kustantajat.fi/WebReport.aspx?DetailedReportsArea=True&language=ENG

Table 28:   Retail net sale (without VAT) of printed and digital books, in thousand EUR, by main genre, 2008–2011

Source:     The Finnish Book Publishers' Association, http://tilastointi.kustantajat.fi/PublicReporting/Yearly.aspx?language=ENG

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