Culture is very important to the vast majority of Europeans - but the traditional arts succeed in attracting only a minority of those people.

Fascinating Eurobarometer research shows that while ‘the arts’ are the definition of culture in most people's minds, regular core attenders to exhibitions and performances represent a fractional minority of the huge culture market.

Poland emerges as the most cultural nation with 92% of people saying culture is 'personally very important to them'. The UK lags behind with 67% of people agreeing with that statement.

Thought-provoking ideas emerge from Northings’ blog at Scottish friends at Hi-Arts (nice web site by the way):

These are quite revealing statistics when you considered that the majority of people said Arts were what came to mind when they think about culture, that 77% of all Europeans feel Culture is important to their lives, and yet attendance, particularly repeat attendance, is very very low. Only 5% of people attend the theatre more then once in a year compared to 46% of people who will watch a cultural television programme. This can give a real insight into the habits of European cultural consumers, and perhaps hint towards the attitudes around active engagement – ie. getting out of the house to partake in culture as opposed to sitting in front of the TV.

The survey found that participation was highest among the youngest, more educated and urbanized respondents across the EU. There was a marked decline in participation as people get older.

Read the full article. And download the report.