Sweden/ 8.2 Cultural consumption and participation  

8.2.1 Trends and figures

Most people under 80 years old are culturally active, in the widest sense, visiting at least one cultural institution per year (concert, film, library, museum, drama, art exhibition). The general trend is that more and more old people attend cultural events. However, younger people, in the last 10 years, have shown a decrease in activity in the traditional cultural areas which have been measured since 1976.

The last general survey of cultural activity in Sweden was carried out in 2010. At that time 40% of the adult population attended theatre performances, 16% classical concerts, 48% visited museums, and 53% public libraries. 7% sang in choirs, 80% had read at least 1 book in the last year, 24% had written poetry or diaries and 43% played computer games. Women generally seem to have a wider interest in the arts than men. Participation in cultural associations decreased in the 1990s but was in 2009 stable at a level where about 5% of the adult population are members. (for more information see table 6 below)

While younger people show less attendance at traditional cultural events than other age groups, they participate in cultural activities to a higher degree; this includes not only new activities, but also established activities such as playing music and participating in amateur theatre. Young Swedes also access the Internet and are active users of a number of Internet services for publishing their own work. Expenditure on films, festivals and music among young people is also very high. While reading trends among adults are stable or increasing, young people read less, but the trend towards decreasing reading in the 1990s has not continued into the new century (lately decreased reading among young people may also relate to Internet sources taking over the role previously held by non-fiction books such as encyclopaedias as a source of information).

Internet use in Sweden is among the highest in the world. In 2011, 89% of Swedes had access to the Internet and 71% used it daily. Of Internet users, 66% used it to listen to music, 64% used social media such as Facebook, 66% used the interactive encyclopaedia Wikipedia, 40% read blogs and 25% participated in file-sharing. These figures illustrate the drastic changes, opportunities and challenges posed by new modes of communication to cultural policy, as well as too other policy areas. According to recent studies, illegal file-sharing is now increasingly outcompeted by legal services such as Spotify.

Table 5:     Household expenditure for private cultural participation and consumption by domain, 2009

Source:     Kulturens finansiering 2008-2009, Kulturrådet 2010.

Table 6:     Cultural habits in Sweden, 2010

Source:     Kulturvanor i Sverige 1987-2010, SOM-institutet 2011.

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