Adults visiting museums and galleries

Published 15 November 2017

This page has been archived.
It has been replaced by Participation in the arts, culture and heritage.

There is a new version of this page. View the latest version.

Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• significantly more adults had visited a museum or gallery in 2015/16 (53%) than in 2005/06 (42%)

• this rise in the percentage of adults visiting museums and galleries was seen across all ethnic groups

• in 2005/06, 2010/11 and 2015/16 White adults (including White ethnic minorities) were more likely than Black adults to have visited museums or galleries

• in 2005/06 and 2010/11 White adults were more likely than Asian adults to have visited museums or galleries; however, there was no significant difference between the percentage of White and Asian adults visiting in 2015/16

Things you need to know

These figures are estimates based on 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 adults (aged 16 and over) in England who had visited a museum or gallery in the year before taking the survey.

Percentages are calculated out of yearly totals of survey respondents. Results are adjusted to make them representative of the population as a whole.

The ethnic categories used in this data

For the period 2005/06 to 2015/16, the ethnic categories used are:

• White - including White British and White ethnic minorities
• Other - all other ethnic groups

These broad ethnic groups have been used because analysis is not available for the specific ethnic groups across the whole time series.

However, for each of the years 2005/06, 2010/11 and 2015/16, results have been broken down into 4 broad ethnic groups:

• Asian
• Black
• White
• Other (which includes adults of mixed ethnicity)

2. Percentage of adults who had visited a museum or gallery in the past year, by ethnicity

• Location: England
• Time period: 2015/16
• Source: Taking Part, focus on: diversity trends

Percentage of adults who visited a museum or gallery in the past year, by ethnicity

Ethnicity	%	Number
All	53	10,171
Asian	50	434
Black	41	242
White	53	9,312
Other	53	174

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Adults visiting museums and galleries Percentage of adults who had visited a museum or gallery in the past year, by ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

• 53% of adults had visited a museum or gallery at least once

• Black adults (41%) were significantly less likely to have visited a museum or gallery than White adults (53%) (including White British and White ethnic minorities)

• there was no significant difference between the percentage of White (53%) and Asian adults (50%) visiting museums and galleries

3. Percentage of adults who had visited a museum or gallery in the past year, by ethnicity over time (3 years)

• Location: England
• Time period: 2005/06, 2010/11 and 2015/16
• Source: Taking Part, focus on: diversity trends

Percentage of adults who had visited a museum or gallery in the past year, by ethnicity over time (3 years)

	All		Asian		Black		White		Other
Year	All %	All Number	Asian %	Asian Number	Black %	Black Number	White %	White Number	Other %	Other Number
2005/06	42	28,117	35	2,080	32	1,322	43	24,038	41	645
2010/11	46	14,102	38	796	30	423	47	12,617	49	238
2015/16	53	10,171	50	434	41	242	53	9,312	53	174

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Adults visiting museums and galleries Percentage of adults who had visited a museum or gallery in the past year, by ethnicity over time (3 years) Summary

This data shows that:

• White adults (including White ethnic minorities) were more likely than Black adults to have visited museums and galleries in 2005/06, 2010/11 and 2015/16

• White adults were more likely than Asian adults to have visited museums and galleries in 2005/06 and 2010/11; however there was no significant difference between the groups in 2015/16

4. Percentage of adults who had visited a museum or gallery in the past year, by ethnicity over time

• Location: England
• Time period: 2005/06 to 2015/16
• Source: Taking Part, focus on: diversity trends

Percentage of adults who had visited a museum or gallery in the past year, by ethnicity over time

	All		White		Other
Year	All %	All Number	White %	White Number	Other %	Other Number
2005/06	42	28,117	43	24,038	35	4,047
2006/07	41	24,174	42	21,317	34	2,829
2007/08	44	25,720	44	22,794	39	2,880
2008/09	43	14,452	44	12,979	37	1,451
2009/10	46	6,097	47	5,455	40	630
2010/11	46	14,102	47	12,617	38	1,457
2011/12	49	9,188	49	8,301	44	871
2012/13	53	9,838	54	9,054	45	775
2013/14	53	10,355	54	9,545	49	798
2014/15	52	9,817	53	9,050	43	757
2015/16	53	10,171	53	9,312	48	850

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Adults visiting museums and galleries Percentage of adults who had visited a museum or gallery in the past year, by ethnicity over time Summary

This data shows that:

• between 2005/06 and 2015/16 significantly more adults visited a museum or gallery: visits by white adults rose by 10 percentage points; visits by adults from all other ethnicities rose by 13 percentage points

• in 2005/06 White adults were significantly more likely to have visited museums and galleries, at 43%, than adults from all other ethnic groups, at 35%

• by 2015/16 there was no significant difference between these 2 ethnic groups

5. Methodology

The Taking Part survey measures cultural activity by adults (aged 16 and over) and children (aged 5 to 10 and 11 to 15), living in private households in England. 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 adults aged 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% females and 75% males will not accurately reflect the views of the general population which we know is around 50% male and 50% female.

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-2014 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.

Confidence intervals

Confidence intervals for each ethnic group are available in ‘Download the data’.

In 2015/16, 53% of adults responding to the Taking Part survey question had visited a museum or gallery. This is a reliable estimate of the percentage of adults in England who visited a gallery or museum in that period. But because the Taking Park survey is based on a random sample of adults, it’s impossible to be 100% certain of the true percentage.

It’s 95% certain, however, that somewhere between 51% and 54% of all adults in England visited a gallery or museum. 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 adults responding to the survey in 2015/16 (242 respondents) was much smaller than the overall adult population that responded to the survey (10,171 respondents), so we can be less certain about the estimate for the smaller group (Black adults). This greater uncertainty is expressed by a wider confidence interval, for example of between 33% and 50% for Black adults in 2015/16.

Rounding

Percentages are given to the nearest whole number.

Further technical information

Taking Part technical reports

6. Data sources

Source

Taking Part, focus on: diversity trends

Publisher

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Publication frequency

Ad-hoc

Secondary source

Taking Part survey

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.

7. Download the data

Adults visiting museums and galleries - Spreadsheet (csv) 8 KB

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

Publication release date: 15 November 2017

full page history

1. 15 November 2017 First published

From: Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

---

Share this page

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn