Trends in Rural Scotland: a working paper (2025)

8. Culture

Attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture

Between 2018 and 2022 there was a gradual decline across all areas in Scotland in the percentage of adults who had attended or visited a cultural event in the last 12 months, from 81% to 74%.^[9] The influence of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and cost of living crisis may have had an impact on declining attendance rates during this period. However, in 2023 rates of attendance increased slightly from 74% to 76% across all areas of Scotland.

When examining attendance by a 2-fold urban/rural split,^[10] adults living in the rest of Scotland were more likely to attend a number of individual cultural events or places than adults who were in rural Scotland. For example, in 2022 the biggest differences were for:

• Cinema (52% compared to 40%),
• Museum (27% compared to 21%)
• Art gallery (19% compared to 15%)

A qualitative report (2024) (Cultural engagement in Scotland: what is it and why does it matter?) on people's experiences with cultural engagement, across different geographical areas (including rural and island areas) in Scotland explores people's perceptions on topics relating to local provision, transport and access.

When examining by 6-fold urban/rural categorisation^[11], between 2018 and 2022 there was a gradual decline across all areas in Scotland in the percentage of adults who had attended or visited a cultural event in the last 12 months with the exception of remote small towns, where there has been no significant change.

There has been a significant increase in attendance from 2022 to 2023 in Accessible Rural and Remote Rural areas. There has been no significant change in Large urban areas, Other Urban Areas or Accessible small towns. Attendance in Remote Small Towns has significantly decreased 13 percentage points from 79% to 66%.

Participation in any cultural activity

In 2023, 74% of adults across all of Scotland had participated in a cultural activity. When examining participation by 2-fold urban/rural split,^[12] cultural participation in 2023 was higher amongst adults living in rural Scotland compared to those living in the rest of Scotland (79% compared to 73%).

When examining by 6-fold urban/rural categorisation,^[13] the percentage of adults who have participated in a cultural activity in the last 12 months showed a significant decrease in Other Urban Areas and Remote Small Towns. There has been a significant increase in participation in Remote Rural areas of 6 percentage points from 72% to 78%. There has been no significant change in Large Urban, Accessible Small Towns or Accessible Rural.

Percentage (%) of the population that can speak Gaelic^[14]

In 2022, 10% of the population in local authority areas classed as Islands and Remote Rural were Gaelic speakers compared to 2% in Mainly Rural and 1% in both Urban with Substantial Rural and Larger City local authorities. Actual numbers of Gaelic speakers have increased from 2001-2022 in all local authority classifications, except for Islands and Remote Rural where they dropped from 20,145 in 2001 to 14,841 in 2022.