Use of public libraries

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1. Main facts and figures

  • overall, the percentage of people aged 16 and over who used a public library in the past year decreased between 2005/06 and 2016/17 – this decrease was seen both in the White ethnic group and in all other ethnic groups combined
  • between 2005/06 and 2016/17, White people (including White ethnic minorities) were less likely to use a public library than people from all other ethnic groups combined
Things you need to know

These figures are estimates based on responses to the Taking Part Survey.

The Taking Part survey is a ‘sample survey’. It collects information from a random sample of the population to make generalisations (reach ‘findings’) about the total population.

Unless stated otherwise, the commentary for this data includes only reliable, or ‘statistically significant’, findings. Findings are statistically significant when we can be confident that they can be repeated, and are reflective of the total population rather than just the survey sample.

Specifically, the statistical tests used mean we can be confident that if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population, 19 times out of 20 we would get similar findings.

As with all surveys, the estimates from the Taking Part survey are subject to a degree of uncertainty as they are based on a sample of the population. The degree of uncertainty is greater when the number of respondents is small, so it will be highest for ethnic minority groups.

What the data measures

This data measures the percentage of people aged 16 and over in England who used a public library in the year before taking the survey.

Percentages are calculated using the total number of survey respondents. Results are adjusted to make them representative of the population as a whole.

The ethnic categories used in this data

For this data, the number of people surveyed (the ‘sample size’) was too small to draw any firm conclusions about specific ethnic categories.

For the analysis over time since 2005/06, the data has been broken down into the following 2 broad categories:

  • White – White ethnic groups (including White British and White ethnic minorities)
  • Other – all other ethnic minorities

For the analysis of the specific years 2005/06, 2010/11 and 2015/16, the data has been broken down into the following 4 broad ethnic groups:

  • Asian
  • Black
  • White (including White ethnic minorities)
  • Other ethnic groups (including people with Mixed ethnicity)

2. Public library use by ethnicity over time

Location:
England
Time period:
2005/06 to 2016/17
Source:
Taking Part, focus on: diversity trends
Percentage of people aged 16 years and over who used a public library in the past year, by ethnicity over time
All White Other than White
Year All % All Number of respondents White % White Number of respondents Other than White % Other than White Number of respondents
2005/06 48 28,117 47 24,038 57 4,047
2006/07 46 24,174 45 21,317 57 2,829
2007/08 45 25,720 44 22,794 58 2,880
2008/09 41 10,752 40 9,728 50 1,010
2009/10 39 6,097 38 5,455 51 630
2010/11 40 14,102 38 12,617 50 1,457
2011/12 39 9,188 38 8,301 47 871
2012/13 37 9,838 36 9,054 45 775
2013/14 35 10,355 34 9,545 48 798
2014/15 34 9,817 33 9,050 47 757
2015/16 33 10,171 32 9,312 46 850
2016/17 34 9,352 32 8,473 45 862

Download table data for ‘Public library use by ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Public library use by ethnicity over time’ (CSV)

Summary of Use of public libraries Public library use by ethnicity over time Summary

This data shows that:

  • overall, the percentage of people aged 16 and over who had used a public library in the past year went down from 48% in 2005/06 to 34% in 2016/17
  • during the same period, the percentage of White people using a public library went down from 47% to 32%, the biggest decrease out of the ethnic groups being compared
  • the percentage of people from all other ethnic groups combined using a public library went down from 57% to 45% in the same period

3. Public library use by ethnicity over time (3 specific years)

Location:
England
Time period:
2005/06, 2010/11 and 2015/16
Source:
Taking Part, focus on: diversity trends
Percentage of people aged 16 years and over who used a public library in the past year, by ethnicity over time (3 specific years)
All Asian Black White Other
Year All % All Number of respondents Asian % Asian Number of respondents Black % Black Number of respondents White % White Number of respondents Other % Other Number of respondents
2005/06 48 28,117 59 2,080 57 1,322 47 24,038 55 645
2010/11 40 14,102 50 796 51 423 38 12,617 48 238
2015/16 33 10,171 47 434 48 242 32 9,312 40 174

Download table data for ‘Public library use by ethnicity over time (3 specific years)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Public library use by ethnicity over time (3 specific years)’ (CSV)

Summary of Use of public libraries Public library use by ethnicity over time (3 specific years) Summary

This data shows that:

  • a lower percentage of people from all ethnic groups used public libraries in 2015/16 compared with 2005/06
  • the largest drop in library use between 2005/06 and 2015/16 was among White people (from 47% to 32%) and people from the Other ethnic group (from 55% to 40%)
  • in all 3 years, people from the Black and Asian ethnic groups were significantly more likely to use public libraries than White people

4. Methodology

The Taking Part Survey measures cultural activity by people aged 16 years and over, as well as children aged 5 to 10 years and 11 to 15 years. Respondents must be living in private households in England, but there is no geographical restriction on where the activity or event occurred.

The sample for the Taking Part survey is chosen by first randomly selecting households from the Postcode Address File.

An interviewer visits these addresses and, if contact is made, records details of all individuals living at each address. One adult, and where applicable one child aged 5 to 10 and one aged 11 to 15, is then selected to participate in the survey.

The figures presented here only apply to people 16 and over.

Weighting:

Weighting is used to adjust the results of a survey to make them representative of the population and improve their accuracy.

For example, a survey which contains 25% women and 75% men will not accurately reflect the views of the general population, which we know has an even 50/50 split. Statisticians rebalance or ‘weight’ the survey results to more accurately represent the general population. This helps to make them more reliable.

Survey weights are usually applied to make sure the survey sample has broadly the same gender, age, ethnic and geographic make up as the general population.

The data in the Taking Part sample is weighted to make sure it is representative of the population in England. The data is weighted to:

  • compensate for unequal probabilities of selection
  • adjust for non-responses

Weighting is based on mid-year population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.

Confidence intervals:

You can see confidence intervals for each ethnic group if you download the data.

In 2016/17, 34% of people aged 16 years and over responding to the Taking Part Survey question had used a public library in the past year. This is a reliable estimate of the percentage of people in England who used a public library in that period. But because the Taking Part Survey is based on a random sample, it’s impossible to be 100% certain of the true percentage.

It’s 95% certain, however, that somewhere between 33% and 35% of all people aged 16 years and over in England used a public library. In statistical terms, this is a 95% confidence interval. This means that if 100 random samples were taken, then 95 times out of 100 the estimate would fall between the upper and lower confidence interval. But 5 times out of 100 it would fall outside this range.

The smaller the survey sample, the more uncertain the estimate and the wider the confidence interval. For example, the number of Black people aged 16 years and over responding to the survey in 2015/16 (242 respondents) was much smaller than the overall population that responded to the survey (10,171 respondents), so we can be less certain about the estimate for the smaller group (Black people, 48%). This greater uncertainty is expressed by a wider confidence interval, of between 39% and 56% for Black people in 2015/16.

All the differences noted in the text are statistically significant. The statistical significance of differences are approximate because they are determined where the 95% confidence intervals for 2 groups or time periods don't overlap.

Rounding

Percentages are given to the nearest whole number.

Quality and methodology information

Further technical information

Taking Part technical reports

5. Data sources

Source

Publisher

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Publication frequency

Ad-hoc

Secondary source

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Publication frequency

Twice a year

Purpose of data source

The Taking Part Survey measures people's involvement in cultural activities in England.

The data is widely used by policy officials, practitioners, academics and charities.

6. Download the data

Public library engagment - Spreadsheet (csv) 8 KB

This file contains: Measure, Time, Ethnicity, Geography, Value, Upper bound, Lower bound, Sample size

Publication release date: 22 August 2018

full page history
  1. Updated with new data for 2016/17

From: Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Previous edition:
  1. Edition published on 2 March 2018
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