The Active Lives Survey
The Active Lives Survey explores participation in leisure and recreational activities, including sport, physical activity and culture. The survey is led by Sport England in partnership with the Arts Council, Public Health England and Department for Transport.
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About the Active Lives Survey
The Active Lives Survey is a Sport England-led survey about people in England (aged 16+) and their participation in leisure and recreational activities, including sport, physical activity and culture. The survey involves a push-to-web methodology, with the option of a paper survey and collects representative data from the adult population in England and in each local authority area in England.
Since 2015, the survey has been conducted by Ipsos MORI. Arts Council England, Public Health England and Department for Transport are also funding partners in the new survey.
More information about the content and management of the Active Lives Survey is on Sport England’s website.
The Actives Live Survey measures:
- Arts participation (doing creative, artistic, theatrical or music activity or a craft)
- Arts attendance (attending an event, performance or festival involving creative, artistic, dance, theatrical or music activity)
- Museums and gallery attendance
- Use of a public library service
- Participation in dance activities, including creative and artistic dance
The survey asks respondents whether they have undertaken each activity in the previous 12 months. Between 2015 and 2017 the survey also collected data on how many times each respondent had done the above activities (0, 1, 2, 3+) in the previous 12 months, but this is no longer collected.
The Arts Council is working in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to boost their existing Participation Survey to Local Authority-level. Going forward this will provide data on a significantly wider range of cultural and creative activities and the importance of culture and creativity in the lives of those living across England.
Publication of the data
Data from the Active Lives Survey about arts and cultural engagement between November 2015–May 2017 was published by the Arts Council in January 2018. The release includes local authority level data.
In February 2024, the Arts Council published an updated dataset to cover the period 2015-2022. This includes data from the 2015-17 period – organised into separate 2015/16 and 2016/17 periods – and as-yet unpublished data from 2017/18 to 2021/ 22. As a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic, data from 2019/20 to 2020/21 will be directly affected, while residual impact will continue to be felt in 2021/ 22 data and beyond.
Active Lives Survey 2015-22
In 2015/16, 69.6% of adults in England said that in the previous 12 months they attended an arts event or visited a museum or gallery or spent time doing an artistic or creative activity. This figure remained somewhat consistent in 2016/17 (70.2%), 2017/18 (68.5%) and 2018/19 (69.4%) before declining slightly in 2019/20 (65.1%) and significantly in 2020/21 (44.5%) as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic. During 2021/ 22 the figure increased (60.2%) but remained below pre-Pandemic levels.
When comparing different demographic groups, findings remained generally consistent with the overall trend across the period. Women, those in rural areas, those identifying as White, those with no or a non-limiting disability and those of higher socio-economic status were all more likely to have engaged in one of these activities in the previous 12 months than other groups irrespective of relative levels of engagement.
Few demographic groups observed any significant change outside of the impact of the pandemic, with the exception of the oldest age groups: between 2015/16 and 2018/19 engagement in these activities increased from 59.7% to 62.4% among those aged 75-84 and from 43.1% to 47.7% among those aged 85 and over.
Looking exclusively at attendance of arts events, in 2015/16 51.9% of adults in England said they had attended an arts event in the previous 12 months. This figure remained consistent in the pre-Pandemic period, reaching its lowest point during 2020/21 (17.9%) before increasing during 2021/ 22 (40.8%). We can also observe that between 2015/16 and 2018/19, attendance of arts events among those with lower socio-economic status declined significantly, from 37% to 34.9%.
In terms of time spent doing an artistic or creative activity, this was impacted to a lesser extent than other categories by the Covid-19 Pandemic. In 2015/16, 34.3% had done so in the previous 12 months and this remained relatively consistent until 2020/21, where the figure declined to 30.4%. Although this represents a significant decrease, it is relatively smaller than in other categories and likely reflects that it was not as dependent on explicit attendance at an event or venue. Conversely, however, the proportion did not increase in 2021/ 22.
Museum and gallery attendance over the period experienced a similar pattern to attendance at arts and cultural events, remaining consistent between 2015/16 (46.5%) and 2018/19 (46.3%), before decreasing in 2019/20 (40.3%) and more significantly in 2020/21 (17.8%). Like arts event attendance, the figure rebounded somewhere in 2021/ 22 (33.1%) although it remains significantly below pre-Pandemic levels.
Unlike in other categories, library visits and use of library services declined before the Pandemic. Between 2015/16 and 2018/19, it decreased from 35.1% to 31.9% of adults, before declining further in 2019/20 (27.5%) and 2020/21 (14.3%). In 2021/ 22, 20.8% of adults had visited a library or used a library service in the previous 12 months.
Library visits and use of library services typically offer a slightly different demographic profile to other arts and cultural attendance, with higher usage by younger adults and students, those living in urban areas and those identifying as from Black, Asian or other ethnically diverse backgrounds. While we can observe that most demographic groups followed the overall trend of declining library use over the whole period, those identifying as from Black or South Asian backgrounds experienced particular declines between 2015/16 and 2018/19: from 49.6% to 40.7% and 43.3% to 37.4%, respectively.
Participation in dance-based activity increased slightly during the pre-Pandemic period, from 20.7% to 21.4%. This was particularly apparent among those aged between 55 and 84 and those with disabilities. Participation declined to 13% during 2020/21 before increasing again in 2021/ 22 (15.8%).
A majority of those participating in dance-based activities were taking part in dance-based classes (e.g. fitness or social). A relatively small proportion were taking part in creative or artistic dance. The proportion of adults taking part in creative or artistic dance remained relatively consistent over the whole period, from 4.4% in 2015/16 to 4.5% in 2021/ 22, which suggests that they were not significantly impacted by Pandemic restrictions. The lowest recorded figure was during 2020/21, at 4.2%. Women, those aged 16-24, students, those identifying as from Black or Mixed backgrounds and those from London were all more likely to have taken part in creative or artistic dance.
Frequently Asked Questions
The FAQs summarise key information about the survey such as approaches to sampling, sample sizes, geographical coverage and a more detailed description of the survey questions about arts and culture.
The FAQs also describe in more detail the differences between the Active Lives Survey and the Taking Part Survey.
The Active People Survey: 2008-10
The Active People Survey is a national telephone survey about participation in sport. The Active Lives Survey will replace the Active People Survey.
More information about the differences between the Active Lives Survey and the Active People Survey can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions section.
Between 2008–10, the Active People Survey measured adult engagement with arts and culture in each local authority area in England. The data from the Active People Survey was used to measure the performance of local authorities against National Indicator 11: the percentage of adults engaging with the arts three or more times a year.
We analysed data from the Active People Survey to create a list that ranks local authorities by level of arts engagement.
This list can be downloaded in an Excel file below. It highlights the (pre-2009) local authorities in the lowest fifth and third of all local authorities in England.
If you wish to understand the level of arts engagement by artistic genre, or in England as a whole, over the period 2005-2021 we would recommend using data from the Taking Part Survey instead. From 2021 onwards, the Participation Survey will provide equivalent data.
More information
Please contact research@artscouncil.org.uk with any questions about the Active Lives Survey.
Active Lives Survey: 18 months data
Please note, this section details findings from a combined 18-month dataset for the period November 2015 to May 2017, first published in January 2018. Elsewhere, to allow for longer-term year-on-year comparison, this data has been expressed separately as 2015/16 and 2016/17, and so figures for this time period may differ slightly.
Findings from the survey
Data from the Active Lives Survey collected over the period suggests that 52.2% of adults (16+) in England attended an event, performance or festival involving creative, artistic, dance, theatrical or music activity in the twelve months prior to interview.
By comparison, over the same period 46.5% had attended a museum or gallery, 35.0% had visited a public library and 34.7% had spent time doing a creative, artistic, theatrical or music activity or a craft.
Respondents were most likely to demonstrate multiple instances of spending time doing a creative activity or craft; 27.3% of adults in England had done so three or more times in the twelve months prior to interview.
26.6% had attended an event, performance or festival three or more times in the preceding twelve months, while 23.7% had done so at public libraries and 20.9% at museums or galleries.
Females were more likely than Males to have engaged in arts and cultural activities. For example, 56.4% of Females had attended an event, performance or festival in the twelve months prior to interview, compared to 47.9% of Males.
Higher engagement levels were often observed among younger members of the population. Those aged 16 to 24, for example, were more likely to have spent time doing a creative activity or craft in the twelve months prior to interview, with 43.2% having done so. This age group was typically among the most culturally active, although those aged 65 to 74 demonstrated the greatest incidence of museum or gallery visits in the twelve months prior to interview, at 50.8%.
Respondents within National Statistics Socio-economic classification (NS-SEC) 1 to 4 were more likely to have engaged in arts and cultural activities than those within NS-SEC 5 to 8. For example, 61.0% of those within NS-SEC 1 to 4 attended an event, performance or festival in the twelve months prior to interview, compared to 36.9% of those within NS-SEC 5 to 8.
Across most arts and cultural activities, respondents who identified as White typically demonstrated higher rates of engagement in the twelve months prior to interview than those identifying as Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME). For example, 54.7% of White British respondents had attended an event, performance or festival over that period, compared to 41.9% of Black and 33.3% of Asian respondents.
Use of public libraries was more frequent among those identifying as BAME. 48.8% of Black respondents has used a public library or library service in the twelve months prior to interview, compared to 33.3% of White British respondents.
Those with limiting disabilities were less likely than those with no disability to attend arts or cultural events. For example, 48.4% of respondents with no disability had attended a museum or gallery in the twelve months prior to interview, compared to 36.1% of respondents with limiting disabilities.
Respondents with limiting disabilities were slightly more likely to have spent time doing a creative activity or craft in the twelve months prior to interview than those without a disability.