Scottish Household Survey 2020 - telephone survey: key findings

Section nine - Culture and heritage

The results of the SHS 2020 telephone survey are not directly comparable to SHS results for previous years. Please see Introduction for more detail.

86% of adults had been culturally engaged in the last year, attending a cultural event or place of culture or participated in a cultural activity (Table 9.1). 44% of adults had attended a cultural event or place of culture (Table 9.2) and 83% of adults had participated in a cultural activity (Table 9.15).

When excluding cinema, only 39% of adults had attended a cultural event or place of culture in the last year (Table 9.2).

When excluding reading, only 62% of adults had participated in a cultural activity in the last year (Table 9.15).

36% of adults living in the 20% most deprived areas had attended a cultural event or place of culture, including the cinema, compared to 53% of adults living in the 20% least deprived areas (Table 9.5).

Attendance at cultural events or places of culture also varied by age (Table 9.3). 55% of adults aged 16 to 24 had attended a cultural event or place of culture, including the cinema, compared to 23% of adults aged 75 or over (Table 9.3).

Only 32% of adults with a disability had attended a cultural event or place of culture, compared to 48% of non disabled adults (Table 9.7).

A historic place (18% of adults) or the cinema (17% of adults) were the most common cultural events or places of culture to attend (Table 9.5).

Adults living in the 20% least deprived areas were more likely to have attended historic places, museums and art galleries in the last year than those living in the 20% most deprived areas.

The proportion of adults from the least and most deprived areas that had visited libraries was similar.

83% of adults had participated in a cultural activity, including reading, in the last year. When excluding reading, 62% of adults had participated in a cultural activity (Table 9.16).

When excluding reading, adults aged 16 to 24 (76%) were more likely to have participated in a cultural activity than adults aged 75 or over (44%).

88% of women had participated in a cultural activity, including reading, in the last year, compared to only 78% of men. Excluding reading, 68% of women had participated in a cultural activity compared to only 56% of men (Table 9.15).

Adults living in the 20% most deprived areas were less likely to have participated in a cultural activity, including or excluding reading, than those living in the 20% least deprived areas (Table 9.18).

The most common cultural activity to participate in was reading books for pleasure, with 71% of adults having read in the last year (Table 9.15). 85% of adults who read books did so at least once a week (Table 9.27).

Women were more likely than men to read or participate in crafts or painting, drawing, printmaking or sculpture. Men were more likely than women to have played a musical instrument or written music.

Adults living in the 20% least deprived areas (78%) were more likely to read books for pleasure than adults living in the 20% most deprived areas (64%) (Table 9.18).

Adults aged 75 or over (75%) were more likely to read books for pleasure than adults aged 16 to 24 (59%) (Table 9.16).

Around nine out of ten users were satisfied with local authority libraries, museums and galleries, and theatres and concert halls (Tables 9.64, 9.66 and 9.68).

It should be noted that satisfaction levels for all adults are generally lower than among service users. This is because non service users are included, who may express no opinion about the service (Tables 9.28 to 9.63).

94% of men who had used local authority libraries were satisfied with the service, compared to 87% of women who had used the service (Table 9.64).