Arts Council England
The Participation Survey started in October 2021 and is the key evidence source on engagement for DCMS. It is a continuous push-to-web household survey of adults aged 16 and over in England.
The Participation Survey provides nationally representative estimates of physical and digital engagement with the arts, heritage, museums & galleries, and libraries, as well as engagement with tourism, major events, live sports and digital.
In 2023/24, DCMS partnered with Arts Council England (ACE) to boost the Participation Survey to be able to produce meaningful estimates at Local Authority level. This has enabled us to have the most granular data we have ever had, which means there were some new questions and changes to existing questions, response options and definitions in the 23/24 survey. The questionnaire for 2023/24 has been developed collaboratively to adapt to the needs and interests of both DCMS and ACE.
- Released: 24 July 2024.
- Period covered: January to March 2024.
- Geographic coverage: National level data for England.
- Next release date: September 2024.
The Participation Survey is only asked of adults in England. Currently there is no harmonised survey or set of questions within the administrations of the UK. Data on participation in cultural sectors for the devolved administrations is available in theScottish Household Survey,National Survey for WalesandNorthern Ireland Continuous Household Survey.
The pre-release access document above contains a list of ministers and officials who have received privileged early access to this release of Participation Survey data. In line with best practice, the list has been kept to a minimum and those given access for briefing purposes had a maximum of 24 hours. Details on the pre-release access arrangements for this dataset are available in the accompanying material.
Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR. OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in theCode of Practice for Statisticsthat all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailingevidence@dcms.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via theOSR website.
The responsible statisticians for this release is Georgina Bason. For enquiries on this release, contact participationsurvey@dcms.gov.uk.