Back Have you visited a 'cultural site' lately?

15 September 2017

© EC and Council of Europe

43.4% of the European Union (EU) population aged 16 and over visited a cultural site such as a historical monument, a museum, an art gallery or an archaeological site at least once in 2015.

This participation rate declines with age, with the highest levels recorded for the age groups of 25-34 (48.5%) and 16-24 years (47.5%).

This news item marks European Heritage days 2017.

 

Highest percentages in the North of the EU, lowest in southern Member States

Across the EU Member States, two-thirds of people aged 16 and over in Sweden (67.2%) visited a cultural site in 2015, and about 6 in 10 in Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland (all 61.4%). These Member States were followed by Luxembourg (55.6%), the United Kingdom (54.7%), France (53.7%) and the Czech Republic (52.1%).

At the opposite end of the scale, fewer than a quarter of the population visited a historical monument, a museum, an art gallery or an archaeological site in Bulgaria (14.6%), Greece (16.9%), Romania (18.3%), Croatia (19.2%) and Cyprus (20.5%), followed by Italy (26.1%) and Malta (26.4%).

Map: Share of population having visited a cultural site in 2015

The source dataset can be found here.

 

Compared with 2006, in 2015 the proportion of the population aged 16 and over who visited at least one cultural site rose in a vast majority of Member States for which the time series is available. The highest increases were registered in the Netherlands (from 49.1% in 2016 to 61.4% in 2015, or +12.3 percentage points – pp) and Malta (+11.7 pp), ahead of Estonia (+9.9 pp), France (+9.3 pp) and the Czech Republic (+8.0 pp).

In contrast, a smaller proportion of the population visited a cultural site in 2015 than in 2006 in seven Member States. The most significant changes were registered in Slovakia (44.4% in 2006 vs. 33.7% in 2015, or -10.7 pp), Spain (-10.5 pp), Germany (-7.9 pp), Hungary (-6.3 pp) and Cyprus (-5.4 pp).