Visits to museums and galleries
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1. Main facts and figures
- in 2018 to 2019, 50.2% of people aged 16 and over had visited a museum or gallery at least once in the past year
- 51.1% of White people had visited a museum or gallery, compared with 33.5% of Black people and 43.7% of Asian people
Things you need to know
The data for this analysis comes from the Taking Part Survey. This survey uses a random sample of people to make generalisations about the whole population.
The commentary for this data includes only reliable findings. Findings are reliable ('statistically significant’) when they reflect the total population. This means we would get similar findings 19 times out of 20 if we carried out the same survey on different people.
All survey estimates are subject to some uncertainty as they are based on a sample of the population.
Ethnic minority groups tend to have a smaller number of survey respondents. As a result, their estimates are less reliable than those for White people.
The question about museums and galleries was in a different place in the Taking Part survey for most of 2017 to 2018. It also had different wording. This was part of a wider review of the questionnaire. From quarter 4 of 2017to 2018, the question went back to its original wording and position.
For consistency, 2017 to 2018 data comes from quarter 4 only. In all other years, data comes from all 4 quarters.
What the data measures
This data measures the percentage of people aged 16 and over who had visited a museum or gallery in the year before taking the survey.
The data includes people living in England, and is broken down by ethnicity.
The ethnic categories used in this data
Survey respondents were asked to choose their ethnic group from a choice of 18 categories.
The number of people surveyed was too small to draw any firm conclusions about these ethnic categories. So the data is grouped into the following 5 broad ethnic groups:
- Asian
- Black
- Mixed
- White
- Other
2. By ethnicity
| Ethnicity | % | Number of respondents |
|---|---|---|
| All | 50.2 | 8,161 |
| Asian | 43.7 | 487 |
| Black | 33.5 | 226 |
| Mixed | 60.3 | 121 |
| White | 51.1 | 7,239 |
| Other | 51.4 | 46 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Visits to museums and galleries By ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2018 to 2019, 50.2% of people aged 16 years and over had visited a museum or gallery in the past year
- 51.1% of White people had visited a museum or gallery, compared with 33.5% of Black people and 43.7% of Asian people
- although it appears that people with Mixed ethnicity were the most likely to have visited a museum or gallery, this estimate is less reliable because of the small number of respondents
3. By ethnicity over time
| All | Asian | Black | Mixed | White | Other | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | All % | All Number of respondents | Asian % | Asian Number of respondents | Black % | Black Number of respondents | Mixed % | Mixed Number of respondents | White % | White Number of respondents | Other % | Other Number of respondents |
| 2012/13 | 52.8 | 9,838 | 45.7 | 394 | 39.9 | 188 | 48.4 | 171 | 53.7 | 9,054 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | 22 |
| 2013/14 | 53.1 | 10,355 | 47.3 | 404 | 49.0 | 203 | 49.7 | 142 | 53.6 | 9,546 | 67.7 | 49 |
| 2014/15 | 52.0 | 9,817 | 39.9 | 367 | 40.7 | 239 | 57.8 | 99 | 53.2 | 9,050 | 51.6 | 52 |
| 2015/16 | 52.5 | 10,171 | 49.9 | 434 | 41.3 | 242 | 53.3 | 119 | 53.1 | 9,312 | 52.3 | 55 |
| 2016/17 | 52.3 | 9,352 | 47.3 | 423 | 31.9 | 242 | 52.3 | 170 | 53.6 | 8,473 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | 27 |
| 2017/18 | 49.7 | 2,088 | 37.9 | 118 | 28.6 | 55 | 48.4 | 38 | 51.4 | 1,849 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | 21 |
| 2018/19 | 50.2 | 8,161 | 43.7 | 487 | 33.5 | 226 | 60.3 | 121 | 51.1 | 7,239 | 51.4 | 46 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV)
Summary of Visits to museums and galleries By ethnicity over time Summary
This data shows that:
- in each ethnic group, the percentage of people who had visited a museum or gallery remained broadly consistent
4. Methodology
The Taking Part Survey measures cultural activity among:
- 5 to 10 year olds
- 11 to 15 year olds
- people aged 16 and over
Survey respondents must live in private households in England. The cultural activity they took part in could have taken place anywhere.
Respondents are chosen randomly from the Postcode Address File.
An interviewer visits respondents' addresses. They record details of everyone living at each address they successfully contact. Where possible, they select one adult, one 5 to 10 year old, and one 11 to 15 year old to take part in the survey.
The figures shown here only apply to people aged 16 and over.
Weighting:
Weighting adjusts the results of a survey to make them more reliable and more representative of the general population.
For example, if 25% of a survey's respondents are women, it won't reflect the views of the general population.
The data in the Taking Part sample 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:
Download the data to see confidence intervals for each ethnic group.
In 2018 to 2019, 50.2% of survey respondents aged 16 years and over had visited a museum or gallery in the past year. This is a reliable estimate of the percentage of people in England who visited a museum or gallery 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 is 95% certain that between 48.6% and 51.8% of all people aged 16 and over in England visited a museum or gallery. In statistical terms, this is a 95% confidence interval. This means that if 100 random samples were taken, the estimate would fall between 48.6% and 51.8% on 95 occasions. 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 2018 to 2019, the Other ethnic group had 46 respondents (out of 8,161 respondents in total). Because of this, we can be less certain about the estimate for the Other ethnic group (51.4%). This greater uncertainty is expressed by a wider confidence interval, of between 32.8% and 69.6%.
Changes over time and differences between groups are only reported if they are statistically significant at the 95% level. This means that we can be confident that the differences seen in our sampled respondents are reflective of the population.
Rounding
Percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place.
Quality and methodology information
Further technical information
Taking Part technical reports.
5. Data sources
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
The file contains: Measure, Time, Ethnicity, Geography, Value, Upper bound, Lower bound, Number of respondents