Official Statistics

DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries annual performance indicators 2020/21: headline release

Updated 11 August 2022

Applies to England

1. Details

Release date: 16 December 2021

Next release : 2022

Geographic Coverage: United Kingdom

Responsible statistician: Emma Lymath

Some of the figures in this release were revised on 11 August 2022. The measures affected are: the number of facilitated and self-directed visits to the museum/gallery by visitors under 18 in formal education (in Section 2.2), and the UK loan venue figure (in Section 2.4).

These changes have not affected the key trends and conclusions for these measures.

This release presents the annual performance indicator data collected by DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries for the financial year 2020/21 at the national level for England. Though annual performance indicators were likely to have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the data was still collected in order to remain transparent and to preserve national records. Data for individual museums and galleries are available in the accompanying tables.

The 15 DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries are:

• British Museum
• Museum of the Home
• Horniman Museum
• Imperial War Museums
• National Gallery
• National Museums Liverpool
• National Portrait Gallery
• Natural History Museum
• Royal Armouries
• Royal Museums Greenwich
• Science Museum Group
• Sir John Soane’s Museum
• Tate Gallery Group
• Victoria and Albert Museum^{[footnote 1]}
• The Wallace Collection

The performance indicators used in this publication of DCMS-Sponsored Museums and Galleries Performance Indicators Statistics 2020/21 are:

Access

• Number of visits to the museum/gallery
• Number of unique website visitors

Audience profile

• Number of visits by children under 16
• Number of overseas visits

Learning and outreach

• Number of facilitated and self-directed visits to the museum/gallery by visitors under 18 in formal education
• Number of instances of visitors under 18 participating in on-site organised activities

Visitor satisfaction

• Percentage of visitors who would recommend a visit

Regional engagement

• Number of UK loan venues

Self-generated income

• Self-generated income - admissions
• Self-generated income - trading income
• Self-generated income - Charitable giving (fundraising/contributed income)

Definitions for a selection of these indicators are available in the Glossary.

Data collection methods vary between institutions and performance indicators. DCMS does not prescribe any particular collection method but provides the flexibility for museums and galleries to adopt a cost efficient data collection approach. Additional information on how the data are collected is available in the Performance Indicator Guidance.

Caution is advised when making year on year comparisons due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and associated restrictions, on visitor numbers.

The DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries closed on 17 March 2020 and were prohibited from reopening until 4 July 2020. Not all museums and galleries reopened at the same time and social distancing rules meant that there was limited capacity for visitors. Museums and galleries were also required to shut down from 5 November to 2 December, 2020.

The introduction of tier regulations in different parts of the country may have differentially affected visitor numbers. For example, tier restrictions in the city of London on the 16th December 2020 meant that the majority of DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries had to close, whereas other museums, such as National Museums Liverpool, were able to remain open until the end of December when the third national lockdown (6 January 2021) required the closure of all museums and galleries in the UK until 4 July 2021.

2. Headline findings

2.1 Access to DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries

Between April 2020 and March 2021, there were 2.6 million visits to DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries^{[footnote 2]}, a decrease of 94.5% from 48.2 million in 2018/19 (the latest financial year completely unaffected by the pandemic) (Figure 1), and a decrease of 94.3% from 46.1 million in 2019/20.

The fall in visitor figures can be attributed to the effects and response to the Covid-19 pandemic which required the closure of all museums and galleries during lockdowns; restricted international travel, and reduced the opening hours and capacity of museums and galleries (when the lockdowns ended).

FIGURE 1: Total number of visits to DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries, 2002/03 to 2020/21

Key — break in time series

Before the pandemic, total DCMS-sponsored museum and gallery visitor figures had been reasonably stable at around 48.0 million visits per year, peaking at 50.8 million in 2014/15. There have been some changes to the scope of this data collection, such as the inclusion of visits to the Royal Armouries at the White Tower from 2011/12 onwards, and the exclusion of Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums from 2015 onwards. When calculating percentage changes between 2020/21, and 2018/19 or 2019/20, the following museums have been excluded from total visits to DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries:

• The Museum of the Home, which closed from 7 January 2018 to commence its capital refurbishment project and reopened on 12 June 2021.
• The National Portrait Gallery, which closed on 17 March 2020 due to Covid-19 lockdown measures alongside other sponsored museums and galleries. The museum did not reopen on 4 July 2020 as it began its redevelopment project in June 2020, which will be completed in 2023.

Visits to DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries outside London fell by slightly less in 2020/21 than visits within London:

• In 2020/21, there were over 637,000 visits to DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries outside of London, a decrease of 90.8% from 6.9 million visits in 2019/20.
• In 2020/21, there were approximately 2.0 million visits to DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries within London, a decrease of 94.9% from 39.2 million visits in 2019/20.

A list of the DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries located outside London can be found in the strategic review of DCMS-sponsored museums, page 23.

Child Visitors

In 2020/21, there were approximately 570,000 child visits to DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries, accounting for 21.6% of all visits. This was a 92.7% decrease in the absolute number of child visits from 7.8 million child visits in 2019/20.

Overseas visitors

In 2020/21, there were an estimated 56,000 visits by overseas residents to DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries, a 99.8% decrease from 23.6 million in 2019/20. Overseas residents accounted for 2.1% of all visits in 2020/21, in contrast, these accounted for just over half of total visits in 2019/20.

Restrictions on international travel started in March 2020 and continued for the rest of the year. Annual travel estimates show that overseas residents made 4.3 million visits to the UK in 2020/21; this was a 89.1% decrease from 39.5 million in 2019/20^{[footnote 3]} as COVID-19 related travel restrictions continued.

When calculating proportions of total visits for visitor sub-groups (child and overseas visitors), the following museums have been excluded:

• The National Coal Mining Museum England, which only collects total visitor numbers but not disaggregations by visitor characteristics.
• The Museum of the Home and the National Portrait Gallery, which were closed throughout the reporting period.

Website Visits

In 2020/21, there were a total of 121.0 million unique website visits to DCMS sponsored Museum websites. This is a decrease of 5.2% from 127.7 million the previous year.

Despite lockdown measures restricting physical visits to the museums and galleries, members of the public were still able to access museum collections on the various online platforms and participate in a number of online events. One example of an online event run during lockdown was the TATE Gallery Group’s collaborative performance which was inspired by the painting of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and was live-streamed to over 700 people on 11 December, 2020^{[footnote 4]}.

2.2 Learning and outreach

Number of instances of visitors under 18 participating in on-site organised activities

In 2020/21 there were approximately 74,000 visits to DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries where visitors under the age of 18 participated in onsite organised activities. This was a fall of 96.7% from 2.3 million in 2019/20.

Figures and percentage changes from the following museums have been excluded from educational visits where under 18 year old visitors participated in onsite organised activities:

• The Museum of the Home and the National Portrait Gallery, which were both closed throughout the reporting period.
• The Royal Armouries, National Gallery and the Wallace Collection did not have any onsite organised activities for 2020/21.

Number of facilitated and self-directed visits to the museum/gallery by visitors under 18 in formal education

There were approximately 1,500 facilitated and self-directed visits by visitors under 18 and in formal education in 2020/21, a decrease of 99.7% from 613,000 in 2019/20.

Figures and percentage changes from the following museums have been excluded from facilitated and self directed visits by under 18 year old visitors in formal education:

• The Museum of the Home and the National Portrait Gallery which were both closed throughout the reporting period.
• TheBritish Museum, the Imperial War Museums, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Royal Museums Greenwich, Tate Gallery Group, V&A Museum and the Wallace Collection had no reported facilitated or self-directed visits for 2020/21.

2.3 Visitor satisfaction

In 2020/21 an average of 91.9% of visitors reported that they would recommend a visit to the DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries. This is a decrease of 5 percentage points in visitor satisfaction from 97.0% in 2019/20. It is worth being aware that as there were many fewer visitors, this will be based on the views of a smaller number of people than usual.

Figures and percentage changes from the following museums have been excluded from the visitor satisfaction indicator.

• The Museum of the Home and the National Portrait Gallery which were both closed throughout the reporting period.

2.4 Regional Engagement

UK loan venues

In 2020/21, DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries loaned their items to 1,086 venues in the UK, a decrease of 17.2% from 1,311 in 2019/20.

Museums and galleries can loan items from their collections to institutions, organisations, exhibition facilities, or individual researchers. “By lending their collections, the national museums engage new audiences, impact on a wide range of social outcomes and support the wider museum sector.”^{[footnote 5]}

2.5 Self-generated Income

In 2020/21, the total self-generated income for DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries amounted to £143.5 million, a decrease of 56.3% from £328.5 million in 2019/20. This consisted of:

• £141.4 million (98.6% of total) from fundraising/contributed income, a decrease of 36.8% from £223.8 million in 2019/20.
• £10.1 million (7.1% of total) admissions, a decrease of 82.9% from £59.2 million in 2019/20^{[footnote 6]}.
• A trading net loss of £8.1 million (5.6% of total), a decrease of 117.8% on £45.5 million in 2019/20.

Please note that parts do not sum to total due to rounding.

The total self-generated income for DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries is made up of fundraising, admissions income and trading net profit.

DCMS publishes a separate report on Total income of DCMS-funded cultural organisations, the next edition, covering the 2020/21 financial year, will be published on 16 December 2021.

3. Glossary

3.1 Number of instances of visitors under 18 participating in on-site organised activities

Organised activities refer to pre-planned, mediated activities, such as talks, lectures, courses, demonstrations, guided tours etc led by museum staff, volunteers or freelancers employed by the museum. The measure is asking for the number of participations by children, as distinct from the number of children participating.

3.2 Facilitated and self-directed visits

A facilitated visit is a group visit to a museum/gallery that is led or heavily supported by a member of staff (including volunteers) or a person hired by the museum e.g. an artist, for at least part of the visit. A facilitated visit is one that has been planned and structured by teachers and museum/gallery staff to support the curriculum, with specific learning outcomes.

A self-directed visit is a group visit facilitated by a person who is not a member of the museum/gallery staff.

3.3 Visitor Satisfaction

The proportion of visitors who would recommend a visit is defined as those who answered ‘How likely are you to recommend a visit to your friends or family’ with ‘definitely will’ or ‘probably will’.

3.4 Loan venue

A loan venue is defined as any approved borrowing institution, organisation, exhibition facility, or individual researcher who has been loaned an item from one of the DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries. Loaning items from permanent collections is not practical for every museum or gallery.

For more detail on museum partnership activities see the museum partnership report.

4. Further information

Sponsored Museums: Performance Indicators is an Official Statistic and has been produced to the standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Additional information is available here.

The data are collected by the museums through sample surveys, with the exception of the information on physical visits and website visits, which are based on actual counts.

For enquiries on this release, please contact evidence@dcms.gov.uk

DCMS statisticians can also be followed on Twitter via @DCMSInsight.

For general enquiries contact:

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

100 Parliament Street

London

SW1A 2BQ

Telephone: 020 7211 2210.

Email: enquiries@dcms.gov.uk

1. The V&A museum site in Dundee is operated as a separate charity to the main V&A museum group. As such, its figures are excluded from this publication and data set. ↩

2. The latest statistics on the monthly and quarterly visitor figures for each DCMS-sponsored museum or gallery can be accessed from the Museum and galleries monthly visits webpage. ↩

3. ONS (2021) Overseas travel and tourism, provisional: January to March 2021. ↩

4. Tate Gallery Group (2021), page 14. ↩

5. Museums Partnership Report: Sharing Collections 2019/20. ↩

6. The admissions figures for the National Gallery are higher for this financial year, which is attributed to international touring income. This is a lot higher than other figures so skews the headline figures. ↩