Cultural engagement in Scotland: what is it and why does it matter?

Annex B: Changes to the 2022 Scottish Household Survey questionnaire

As part of a substantial review of the whole SHS questionnaire, the response categories for culture and heritage were amended for the 2022 survey to better understand the nature and frequency of attendance and participation at cultural events, places and activities. Some categories were added, and some were reworded.

Cultural attendance

In 2022, cultural attendance was defined as visiting any of the 18 types of cultural place or event in the last 12 months.

One category was added in 2022:

• ‘Comedy performance’ was added.

Two categories present in 2019 were split in two in 2022:

• ‘Classical music performance’ and ‘Opera’ were split into two in 2022; before 2022 the option was “Classical music performance or opera”.

Five categories were reworded in 2022:

• ‘Live music event - e.g. traditional music, rock concert, jazz event (not opera or classical music performance’ became ‘Live music event - e.g. traditional music, rock concert’
• ‘Dance show / event - e.g. ballet’ became ‘Dance show / event - e.g. ballet, street dance’
• ‘Historic place - e.g. castle, stately home and grounds, battle or archaeological site’ became ‘Historic place – e.g. castle, stately home, archaeological site’
• ‘Book festival or reading group’ became ‘Book festival’
• ‘Streaming of a live performance (e.g. theatre or dance) into a local venue such as a cinema or community hall’ became ‘Streaming of a live performance (e.g. theatre, dance, concert or comedy performance)’

Cultural participation

In 2022, cultural participation was defined as taking part in any of 15 different types of activity in the last twelve months.

Four categories were also reworded in 2022:

• ‘Book festival or reading group’ became ‘Read books, poetry or graphic novels / comics for pleasure (including on a Kindle or other mobile device)’
• ‘Taken part in a play (including backstage) ‘ became ‘Taken part in a theatrical performance such as a play, musical, comedy or variety performance (including production and backstage activities)’
• ‘Crafts such as knitting, wood, pottery, etc.’ became ‘Crafts such as knitting, wood, jewellery making, pottery, etc.’
• ‘Creative writing - stories, books, plays or poetry’ became ‘Creative writing - stories, books, comics, plays or poetry’

Cultural engagement

In 2022, cultural engagement was defined as either attending any cultural place or event or participating in any activity in the last twelve months, in other words, saying yes to one of the 33 individual categories.

The 2019 and 2022 questionnaires can be viewed online^[28].