Canadian Cultural Participation Rates (1992 - 2005)

The General Social Survey (Statistics Canada) looks at participation in cultural and heritage activities. Hill Strategies Research Inc. has reviewed data from 1992, 1998 and 2005 and prepared an excellent 45 page analysis entitled, 'A Profile of the Cultural and Heritage Activities of Canadians in 2005' (March 2007). The following table captures the overall trend in each major category - showing participation rates or percentage of the population 15 years of age or over who participated at least once in an activity over the previous 12 months.

Activity/Category	1992	1998	2005
Performing Arts attendance Theatre attendance Pop Concert attendance Classical Music attendance Art Gallery attendance Museum attendance Newspaper reading Magazine reading Book reading Movie going Video watching Listening to recorded music	42.4% 24.3 24.0 8.4 19.6 32.7 93.2 80.8 66.8 49.2 71.8 81.7	37.6% 21.7 21.3 9.0 24.0 32.3 88.7 77.2 66.5 64.1 79.1 83.3	41.2% 22.6 23.8 9.5 26.7 35.2 86.7 78.2 66.6 61.0 78.6 83.9

Essentially, the report found that most cultural and heritage activities held their own, attracting roughly the same percentage participation from the Canadian public over the period 1992 to 2005. Given the rapid population growth over the same period, this clearly implies a growing market.



Source: http://www.hillstrategies.com/docs/Cultural_activities2005.pdf