Department For Culture Media Sport
The Participation Survey has run since 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 reliable estimates of physical and digital engagement with the arts, heritage, museums and galleries, and libraries, as well as engagement with tourism, major events, digital and live sports.
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 will be 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.
Where there has been a change, we have highlighted where a comparison with previous data can or cannot be made. Questionnaire changes can affect results, therefore should be taken into consideration when interpreting the findings.
- Released: 27 September 2023
- Period covered: May to June 2023
- Geographic coverage: National data for England.
- Next release date: December 2023
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 the Scottish Household Survey, National Survey for Wales and Northern 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 the Code of Practice for Statistics that 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 emailing evidence@dcms.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
The responsible statistician for this release is Donilia Asgill. For enquiries on this release, contact participationsurvey@dcms.gov.uk.