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

How do we measure and understand cultural engagement in Scotland?

This report aims to explore what "cultural engagement" means to different people, and it focuses on the level and distribution of engagement in Scotland. To do this, this report will draw on three approaches.^[7]

1. Scottish Household Survey (SHS) – survey variables in SHS, which are ‘attendance at a cultural event/place’ and ‘participation in any cultural activity’ provide data on what people do and where they have been in the last 12 months

Annex C provides a full list of the activities and places/events that respondents can select for cultural attendance and participation when they are completing the survey.

2. Disaggregation – levels of participation and attendance vary across different subgroups and places. SHS data can be analysed to understand what levels of engagement are like for people in different Local Authorities, of different sex, age, highest level of qualifications, deprivation, net annual household income and disability. ^[8]

Within this report we present analysis of attendance at cultural events or places and participation in cultural activities including and excluding cinema and reading. This is not to suggest that they are less important or valuable than other types of attendance and participation, but because attendance at the cinema and participation in reading are so dominant and central within the context of cultural engagement we sometimes exclude them from some of the breakdowns to help us to focus on the large range of other events, places and activities that contribute to cultural life.

All year-on-year and subgroup comparisons reported in this publication have been tested for statistical significance. Therefore, any comparisons highlighted in the report are statistically significant. A further explanation on statistical significance can be found in Introduction of the SHS 2022: Key Findings report.

Please note percentages in this report have been rounded to the nearest whole number. As a result of this calculated differences or changes may be out compared to the difference between the stated percentages.

This report contains visuals using resources from Flaticon.com.

3. Free-text survey – this report also contains accounts from people who completed a ‘free-text’ culture survey.

One of the main limitations to the approach used in SHS, of asking people to choose from a pre-determined list of options, is that they may not reflect the full range of activities and places that people engage with. This means that people may be engaged in other, more everyday leisure activities or culturally specific interests. But we do not always know what these are, or what value they may bring to people. This survey was developed to provide the public with a chance, unlike the approach used in closed-question surveys, to discuss their attitudes and behaviours in an unstructured and un-prompted way.