France 6.2

France has a long tradition of monitoring cultural participation through large-scale national surveys conducted by the Department for Studies, Foresight, Statistics and Documentation (Département des études, de la prospective, des statistiques et de la documentation – DEPS) of the Ministry of Culture, often in cooperation with the research institute CRÉDOC. Since the first edition of Pratiques culturelles des Français in 1973, these surveys have provided one of the most comprehensive and long-standing sources of information on cultural participation in Europe, documenting changes in cultural attendance, artistic practices and media consumption over time.

Recent evidence highlights both continuity and change in patterns of cultural participation. Following the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, attendance at cultural venues has largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, while digital forms of cultural participation have become an integral component of everyday cultural life. At the same time, significant inequalities related to education, socio-economic status and place of residence continue to shape participation in many cultural activities. Tables 4a, 4b and 5 illustrate these developments through recent indicators on cultural attendance, media practices and amateur artistic participation.

Table 4a. : Attendance at selected cultural activities in France during the previous 12 months (% of the population aged 15+, selected years)

	2019	2023	2024
Activities heavily subsidised by the state and/or local authorities
Theatre	23	14	24
Dance	12	8	14
Concerts (all genres)*	35	24	36
Libraries	32	30	37
Museums / exhibitions	41	33	39
Monuments / heritages sites	64	59	64
Activities without large public subsidies
Cinema	59	53	60
Festivals	20	20	24

Source: DEPS–CRÉDOC, Les sorties culturelles des Français en 2024 (Baromètre des pratiques culturelles, waves 2019, 2023 and 2024); Ministry of Culture.

* The DEPS–CRÉDOC Cultural Barometer covers concerts of all musical genres and does not provide a separate indicator for classical music.

The DEPS–CRÉDOC Cultural Barometer indicates that the post-pandemic recovery of cultural attendance has not been uniform across cultural activities. Heritage sites and cinema rapidly returned to, and in some cases slightly exceeded, their pre-pandemic attendance levels, reflecting the resilience of broadly accessible forms of cultural participation. By contrast, attendance at theatre, dance performances and museums appears more sensitive to social and behavioural factors, having experienced a sharper decline during the pandemic before recovering strongly by 2024. These trends suggest that while overall participation has normalised, the pace and dynamics of recovery differ according to the type of cultural activity. 

Table 4b. Selected cultural and media practices in France in 2018

Cultural and media practices during the previous 12 months	Share of the population (%)
Read at least one book (excluding comic books)	62
Read at least one newspaper (print or online)	51
Listened to recorded music	81
Watched television	94
Listened to the radio	82
Went to the cinema	63
Visited a museum or exhibition	29
Visited a historic monument	34
Used a public library	27
Attended at least one live performance	43
Played video games	44

Source: Ministry of Culture (DEPS), Pratiques culturelles en France 2018, detailed statistical tables.

Note: Table 4b draws on Pratiques culturelles en France (2018), the latest comprehensive national survey of cultural participation conducted by the Ministry of Culture (DEPS). Unlike the annual DEPS–CRÉDOC Cultural Practices Barometer, which focuses primarily on recent attendance at cultural venues (see Table 3a), this survey covers a much wider range of cultural and media practices, including reading, audiovisual consumption, artistic participation, digital practices and library use. Although conducted in 2018, it remains the principal national reference for analysing long-term patterns of cultural participation in France.

The Pratiques culturelles survey highlights a broad conception of cultural participation that extends beyond attendance at cultural institutions. While television, radio, recorded music and reading continue to structure everyday cultural life for a majority of the population, digital leisure activities such as video games have become firmly embedded alongside more traditional practices. These findings suggest that contemporary cultural participation in France is increasingly multi-dimensional, combining institutional attendance, home-based cultural consumption and digitally mediated forms of engagement rather than replacing one mode of participation with another. 

Table 5: People who have carried out artistic activities in France in the last 12 months by type of activity, in % of total population, 2018

Artistic activity	2018 (%)
Writing	8
Painting or drawing	12
Photography	19
Video creation*	9
Digital content creation / website or blog creation**	n.a.
Amateur drama	1
Dance	7
Playing a musical instrument	7
Singing***	6

Source: Philippe Lombardo, 23 millions d’amateurs pratiquent une activité de loisir créatif, artistique ou scientifique en 2018, France, portrait social 2022, INSEE, based on the Ministry of Culture (DEPS), Pratiques culturelles des Français 2018.

*Video creation corresponds to the French survey category audio/video editing (montages audiovisuels), which is the closest available equivalent.

** Digital content creation / website or blog creation has no direct equivalent in the French survey. No comparable national statistic is available.

*** The French survey records singing (chant) rather than specifically singing in a choir or group.

Note: The 2018 survey is the latest comprehensive national survey providing detailed statistics on amateur artistic practices in France. Earlier editions of the survey are not directly comparable because several activity categories and the questionnaire were revised over time, particularly with the introduction and reclassification of digital and audiovisual practices. Where necessary, the activity labels have been adapted to reflect the closest available categories in the French survey.

These data demonstrate that cultural participation in France extends beyond cultural consumption to include a wide range of creative practices. Photography, visual arts and audiovisual creation are more widespread than collective performing arts, reflecting the diversity of contemporary forms of artistic engagement. This broader understanding of participation has increasingly informed French cultural policy, which now places greater emphasis on participation, artistic practice and cultural expression alongside access to publicly funded cultural institutions.

Taken together, these findings illustrate the increasingly multifaceted nature of cultural participation in France. Attendance at cultural venues has largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, while media consumption, digital leisure and amateur artistic practices demonstrate that participation extends well beyond visits to cultural institutions. The data also confirm that publicly supported cultural venues continue to play a central role within the French cultural landscape, particularly museums, heritage sites, libraries and the performing arts. At the same time, previous DEPS surveys consistently show that participation remains unevenly distributed according to educational attainment and socio-economic background. Contemporary French cultural policy therefore seeks to reconcile the long-standing objective of cultural democratisation—broadening access to publicly funded culture—with increasing recognition of diverse forms of cultural participation, including digital practices, amateur creativity and cultural participation throughout everyday life.