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Our Deputy CEO, Alison Reeves, explores how data from government participation surveys can strengthen music groups and the sector by highlighting both widespread interest and the challenges limiting broader participation.
Did you know that all nations in the UK regularly ask the general public if they play music, sing and attend live music events? The results show that live music attendance is the second most popular arts activity in the UK, and that as many as 15% of people play musical instruments or sing regularly. As part of our advocacy work, Alison analyses what these government surveys tell us about who’s involved in leisure time music and how we can leverage this information to better support our groups and the sector.
When people are asked what cultural events they have attended in the last year, live music comes out as the second or third most popular type of event: 32% of respondents in Scotland and Wales, 38% in England and 39% in NI had attended a live music event.
Each year, the governments in the four nations of the UK ask people about what they do in their leisure time, including their participation in cultural activities and attendance at cultural events. They do this through surveys; the Scottish Household Survey, the National Survey for Wales and the Continuous Household Survey in Northern Ireland all include questions on arts participation. In England, the Participation Survey is run by the Department of Culture Media and Sport, specifically to gather data on cultural, digital, and sporting engagement and why people do or do not engage. In 2023/24, DCMS partnered with Arts Council England (ACE) to boost the Participation Survey to produce more meaningful data that was useful at Local Authority level. They asked more people – 172,000 people rather than 33,500 in previous years – and asked more questions, including some with great relevance to the leisure-time music sector.
This data, of course, is really useful for governments who are deciding where to target their culture spends, and trying to give everyone access to funded culture. But what use is it to us in leisure time music sector? Firstly, it proves to us – and those who we want to talk to about our value – that both live music attendance and music making is a really popular leisure-time activity.
When people are asked what cultural events they have attended in the last year, live music comes out as the second or third most popular type of event: 32% of respondents in Scotland and Wales, 38% in England and 39% in NI had attended a live music event. Cinema is most popular in all nations, and theatre is marginally more popular in England (39%).
...between 9% and 15% of people in the UK are doing it, and at least 5% are attending a group just like the ones in the Making Music membership. That could mean 7 million music makers and 3.5 million people in music groups and classes in the UK!
Surveys also ask about music making, but each in a different way, so results are a little tricky to compare. In England, when they ask which cultural activities have you taken part in in the last year, one of the possible responses is 'Written, practised and performed music' – 10% of respondents answered 'Yes' to this in 23/24. Interestingly, this question changed for the 23/24 survey. In 22/23 and earlier, the offered response was 'Written or performed music', and only 6% of people answered 'Yes' to this. Did the number of 'yeses' jump up because the word ‘practised’ was included in the answer?
In Scotland the question has two possible answers related to music – ‘Played a musical instrument or written music’ to which 12% answered 'Yes' in 2022 (most recent published data). And also ‘Sang in a singing group or choir’ to which 3% answered 'Yes'. Maybe it’s the way the questions are asked differently in Scotland, but this gives an estimate of 15% of people making music, compared to England’s 10%. In Northern Ireland, the possible answers are 'Sang or Played a musical instrument to an audience or rehearsed for a performance (not karaoke)' – 7% 'Yes' in 23/24 – and 'Written music/songs (including creating music digitally)' – 2% in 23/24. The 9% total is closer to the England estimate. In Wales, the last time this data was published in a report was 2019, when 8% of respondents selected music making as an activity they had taken part in.
...6% non-disabled and 5.5% disabled people replied they had ‘Written or performed music’... There was a greater disparity when looking at ethnicity – 12% of White/White British respondents, 9% of Black/Black British and 7% of Asian/Asian British said they had ‘Written, practised or performed music’.
One new question that was asked in the DCMS/Arts Council Participation Survey this year gives even more insight. They asked whether people had attended an arts and culture class, course, group or club – 17% of people said 'Yes'. Of these, the largest number had attended 'a choir or music group, orchestra or band, singing or music lesson' - 5% of all respondents (4.5% attended art classes and 3.5% attended a book club/creative writing class).
These stats give us a real insight into what a popular activity music making is – between 9% and 15% of people in the UK are doing it, and at least 5% are attending a group just like the ones in the Making Music membership. That could mean 7 million music makers and 3.5 million people in music groups and classes in the UK!
But perhaps the more useful information we can draw from these surveys is who is NOT taking part in music activity. The England 23/24 survey is most useful for this, given the very high number of respondents and the questions they asked them. The reports show the demographics of respondents so we can see who is less likely to be participating. Across age groups, between 12 and 17% of people aged 16-29 said they had ‘Written, practised or performed music’, 10 and 11% of 30 to 49 year olds, and 8 to 10% of 50 to 74 year olds. That might surprise some of our groups who report that their memberships are mostly in that older age group.
...respondents who did not engage with cultural activities generally were asked why they did not. After ‘No reason’ and ‘I’m not interested’ the top answer was ‘I can’t afford it’ 22%, then ‘I don’t have time’ 20%, then ‘I have a health problem or disability’ 13%.
Less surprisingly, income from occupation and the level of deprivation of the area a person lives in has a big impact. 13% of people living in the least deprived postcodes in England responded that they had ‘written, practised or performed music’, but only 7% in the most deprived postcodes. There was little difference between the number of disabled and non-disabled people participating - 6% non-disabled and 5.5% disabled people replied they had ‘Written or performed music’ when the data was last captured in 2023. There was a greater disparity when looking at ethnicity – 12% of White/White British respondents, 9% of Black/Black British and 7% of Asian/Asian British said they had ‘Written, practised or performed music’ in 23/24 (there is more nuanced data available, this is crudely extracted for this article).
But is it useful to know who is not in the room, when we don’t know why? The survey data can also help with this. In the Participation Survey, respondents who did not engage with cultural activities generally were asked why they did not. After ‘No reason’ and ‘I’m not interested’ the top answer was ‘I can’t afford it’ 22%, then ‘I don’t have time’ 20%, then ‘I have a health problem or disability’ 13%. People who didn’t take part in an arts class, course, group or club were also asked this. After ‘I’m not interested’ the top answer was ‘I don’t have time’ 30% then ‘I can’t afford it’ 16% and ‘I don’t know what is available or how to access it’ 13%.
The pressures of life that seem to most impact on music participation then seem to be financial, health and having many other urgent things to do (work, caring etc). Although the headline data doesn’t tell us the whole story, it does give us some clues about what we might focus on if we are trying to remove barriers to participation in our own groups. Are there some actions we could take do make taking part in a group or attending a concert more possible for people who have never made it?
The four governments are going to keep running these surveys, and it will be interesting to see if the data shifts much over the years depending on how well culture is funded, if local authority budgets improve, how the cost of living impacts people’s disposable incomes and many other factors. What groups in Making Music membership can take away though is that live music attendance and music making are still hugely popular leisure activities, and hopefully the insights from the surveys on why people do and do not take part can help us to make sure they remain so.
