United Kingdom/ 8.2 Cultural consumption and participation  

8.2.1 Trends and figures

England

Cultural consumption and participation data has been extracted from the Taking Part Survey and related reports, produced by Arts Council England and Tak Wing Chan and John Goldthorpe, sociologists at the University of Oxford. The survey covers responses from 28 117 adults in England (aged 16+) in 2005/06 and provides information on engagement with cultural, leisure and sporting activities in the 12 months prior to interview, as well as socio-demographic information and includes people in every region, from every type of social group.

The data shows that there are four basic patterns / types of arts attender: Little if anything, Now and then, Enthusiastic, and Voracious.

Figure 1:    Patterns of arts attendance in England

Source:      From indifference to enthusiasm: patterns of arts attendance in England, report prepared for Arts Council England by Catherine Bunting, Tak Wing Chan, John Goldthorpe, Emily Keaney, Anni Oskala (April 2008) and based on Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, 2005/2006, Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Note:         The report focuses specifically on attendance at 16 arts and cultural events: play / drama, other theatre (e.g. musical / pantomime), ballet, contemporary dance, African people's dance / Asian dance / Chinese dance, cinema, opera / operetta, classical music, jazz, other live music event (eg rock / pop, soul, etc), art / photography / sculpture exhibition or collection, craft exhibition, video / electronic art event, museum / gallery, culturally specific festival, and street arts / circus.

According to the above data, 84% of the population fall into either the "Little if anything" or the "Now and then" groups, and only occasionally attending popular arts activities.

The most important factors in determining whether somebody attends arts activities are education and social status (the higher an individual's level of education and social status, the more likely they are to have high levels of arts attendance).

Gender, ethnicity, age, region, having young children and health are also important factors. When all other factors are held constant, women are more likely to attend the arts than men, older people more likely than younger people, white people more likely than Black or Asian people, Londoners more likely than those who live in other regions, people without children more likely than parents of young children, and people in good health more likely than those with poor health.

When other factors - including social status - are held constant, income, social class (measured by NS-SEC), and disability status have little or no significant effect on arts attendance.

Many of the barriers to arts attendance appear to be psychological rather than practical (e.g. having young children), in particular social status, which suggests that attendance is determined by identity ("who we think we are", "the type of people we perceive as our social status equals" and "the kind of lifestyle we deem appropriate") and a general belief that the arts are "not for people like me".

For specific data, see figures and tables below.

Attendance

Table 12:   Frequency of attendance at arts events during the past 12 months

Frequency of attendance	Percentage	Range (%)
Number of visits
0	33.5	32.8	-	34.1
1	23.3	22.7	-	23.9
2	15.1	14.6	-	15.6
3+	28.1	27.5	-	28.8
Total	28 117
Frequency of visits
1-2 times a year	49.1	48.2	-	50.0
3-4 times a year	34.4	33.5	-	35.2
At least once a month	13.1	12.5	-	13.7
At least once a week	3.3	3.0	-	3.6
Don't know	0.1	0.0	-	0.2
Total	18 140

Source:      From indifference to enthusiasm: patterns of arts attendance in England, report prepared for Arts Council England by Catherine Bunting, Tak Wing Chan, John Goldthorpe, Emily Keaney, Anni Oskala (April 2008) and based on Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, 2005/2006, Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Table 13:   Types of arts events attended during the past 12 months

Types of arts events	Percentage	Range (%)
Theatre performance (excluding plays or drama)	25.5	24.9	-	26.1
Live music event (excluding jazz or classical)	24.4	23.8	-	25.1
Play or drama	22.7	22.1	-	23.3
Exhibition of art, photography  or sculpture	21.8	21.2	-	22.3
Carnival	17.3	16.8	-	17.8
Craft exhibition	15.4	14.9	-	16.0
Street arts	13.7	13.2	-	14.2
Classical music performance	8.3	7.9	-	8.7
Culturally specific festival	5.6	5.3	-	5.9
Jazz performance	5.6	5.2	-	5.9
Event connected with books or writing	4.9	4.6	-	5.2
Opera or operetta	4.4	4.1	-	4.7
Video or electronic art event	4.1	3.9	-	4.4
Ballet	3.9	3.6	-	4.2
Other live dance event	3.8	3.6	-	4.1
African people's dance or South Asian and Chinese dance	2.5	2.3	-	2.7
Contemporary dance	2.2	2.0	-	2.4
Total	28 117

Source:      Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, 2005/2006, Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The data show that 67.17% of all adults had attended an arts event; equivalent to approximately 26.4 million adults. The highest proportion of visitors had attended once or twice during the past twelve months.

Table 14:   Attendance to at least one type of arts event during the past 12 months by population sub-groups

Age:	Percentage	Range (%)			Total N
16-24	66.0	63.9	-	68.2	2 859
25-44	70.6	69.5	-	71.7	10 167
45-64	70.4	69.2	-	71.6	8 558
65-74	60.8	58.8	-	62.7	3 558
75+	44.5	42.3	-	46.7	2 964
Gender:
Male	64.5	63.5	-	65.5	12 549
Female	68.4	67.5	-	69.3	15 568
Disability / illness:
Limiting disability / illness	54.2	52.7	-	55.6	6 820
Non limiting disability / illness	72.5	70.1	-	74.9	2 069
No disability / illness	69.7	68.9	-	70.5	19 153
Ethnicity:	Percentage	Range (%)			Total N
White	67.4	66.6	-	68.1	24 038
Mixed	60.2	54.6	-	65.8	436
Asian	56.6	53.9	-	59.3	1 951
Black	63.1	59.9	-	66.3	1 322
Other	57.4	51.0	-	63.9	338

 

Religion:
No religion	68.3	66.6	-	69.9	4 638
Christian	66.5	65.5	-	67.4	15 128
Buddhist	75.3	65.3	-	85.3	107
Hindu	64.8	58.9	-	70.6	378
Muslim	46.5	42.5	-	50.5	899
Sikh	69.8	61.3	-	78.4	166
Other religion	78.3	72.4	-	84.1	287
Socio-Economic Group:
Never worked & long-term unemployed	38.3	34.7	-	41.8	1 090
Routine occupations	45.8	43.8	-	47.7	3 737
Semi-routine occupations	57.3	55.4	-	59.1	4 247
Lower supervisory & technical occupations	58.1	55.8	-	60.3	2 787
Small employers & own account workers	67.1	64.6	-	69.5	2 070
Intermediate occupations	72.2	70.6	-	73.9	4 288
Lower managerial & professional occupations	80.6	79.3	-	81.9	5 266
Higher managerial & professional occupations	82.8	81.0	-	84.6	2 505
Personal Income:
Nothing / no work or scheme	61.8	58.5	-	65.0	1 286
Under GBP 10 000	60.2	58.9	-	61.5	8 393
GBP 10 000 to GBP 19 999	67.7	66.3	-	69.2	5 944
GBP 20 000 to GBP 29 999	76.7	75.0	-	78.5	3 299
GBP 30 000 to GBP 39 999	80.6	78.3	-	82.9	1 685
GBP 40 000 to GBP 49 999	73.8	70.6	-	77.0	1 089
GBP 50 000+	85.8	82.9	-	88.7	824
Tenure
Owners	71.0	70.2	-	71.8	19 457
Social rented sector	46.4	44.7	-	48.0	5 449
Private rented sector	67.2	65.2	-	69.1	3 208
Household Structure:
1 adult and 0 children	57.7	56.3	-	59.0	7 352
2+ adults and 0 children	67.9	66.8	-	68.9	11 892
Adults and children	69.3	68.0	-	70.6	7 106
Lone parent	61.3	58.5	-	64.1	1 752
Qualifications:
No qualifications	43.8	42.4	-	45.1	7 835
Other qualifications - level unknown	60.2	56.8	-	63.7	1 157
Below A-levels	66.8	65.3	-	68.3	5 549
Trade apprenticeships	56.9	53.5	-	60.3	1 191
A-levels and above	80.2	79.3	-	81.0	12 312

Source:      Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, 2005/2006, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Table 15:   Frequency of attendance at museums / galleries during the past 12 months, 2005-06

Frequency of attendance at museums / galleries during the past 12 months	Percentage	Range (%)
Number of visits
0	57.7	57.0	-	58.4
1+	42.3	41.6	-	43.0
Total	28 067
Frequency of visits
1-2 times a year	60.5	59.4	-	61.6
3-4 times a year	31.3	30.3	-	32.4
At least once a month	7.5	6.9	-	8.0
At least once a week	0.6	0.4	-	0.8
Don't know	0.1	0.0	-	0.1
Total	11 373

Source:      Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, 2005/2006, Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Participation

Table 16:   Types of arts activities participated in during the past 12 months, 2005-06

Types of arts activities participated in during the past 12 months	Percentage	Range (%)
Buying original crafts	16.0	15.5	-	16.5
Painting, drawing, printmaking or sculpture	13.3	12.8	-	13.8
Textile crafts	13.0	12.5	-	13.5
Creating original artworks using a computer	11.6	11.1	-	12.0
Playing a musical instrument for pleasure	11.5	11.0	-	11.9
Photography as an artistic activity	9.2	8.8	-	9.6
Dance (not for fitness) (excluding Ballet)	8.4	8.0	-	8.8
Buying original art	7.3	6.9	-	7.6
Wood crafts	4.8	4.5	-	5.1
Crafts (excluding textile and wood crafts)	4.7	4.4	-	5.0
Writing poetry	4.3	4.0	-	4.6
Singing to an audience	4.2	3.9	-	4.5
Writing stories or plays	3.5	3.2	-	3.7
Playing a musical instrument to an audience	3.4	3.1	-	3.6
Writing music	2.6	2.4	-	2.8
Making films or videos as an artistic activity	2.2	1.9	-	2.4
Rehearsing or performing in a play or drama	2.1	1.9	-	2.3
Ballet	0.5	0.4	-	0.6
Rehearsing or performing in an opera	0.5	0.4	-	0.6
Total	28 117

Source:      Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, 2005/2006, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Other engagement

Table 17:   Visiting an arts website during the past 12 months

Visiting an arts website during the past 12 months	Percentage	Range (%)
Visiting an art website
Not visited an arts website	69.5	68.9	-	70.2
Visited an arts website	30.5	29.8	-	31.1
Total	28 117
Visited an art website to find out about or order tickets for
art exhibitions or live performances
Did not visit to find out about or order tickets	7.1	6.3	-	7.8
Visited to find out about or order tickets	92.9	92.2	-	93.6
Total	7 519

Source:      Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, 2005/2006, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Table 18:   Attendance at cultural events in Great Britain, % share of resident population aged 15 and over, 1986-2004

Chapter updated: 29-11-2008

Field	'86/87	'91/92	'96/97	'98/99	'99/00	'00/01	'01/02	'02/03	'03/04
Cinema	31	44	54	57	56	55	57	61	65
Plays	23