Headline findings for the Participation Survey (October 2021 to March 2022)
Updated 30 November 2023
Applies to England
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This section summarises the key findings from the Participation Survey. More detail can be found in the main report.
During the period October 2021 to March 2022, a representative sample of adults in England were asked about their engagement with a number of DCMS sectors during the previous 12 months; therefore, many survey questions cover participation stretching from October 2020 to March 2022, depending on when the respondent participated in the survey. Where questions do not cover the previous 12 months (for example live sports), this is stated in the relevant parts of the main report and data tables.
Culture
Physical engagement in all four cultural sectors was higher than digital engagement. Total engagement in the arts (88%) was the highest, whilst library engagement was the lowest (20%).
Figure 1.1: Physical and Digital engagement in the Cultural sectors, England: October 2021 to March 2022.
| Arts | Libraries | Heritage | Museums & galleries | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 88% | 20% | 65% | 24% |
| Physical | 87% | 15% | 63% | 24% |
| Digital | 27% | 12% | 20% | NA |
“Not interested” and “COVID-19 restrictions or concerns” were the most common barriers for physically engaging with cultural sectors. For digital engagement, the top two most common reasons for not engaging were “not having a reason in particular” and “not interested”.
Tourism
Over half (55%) of adults took a holiday in England in the previous 12 months to being interviewed. Of these,
- 45% spent 3 to 6 nights on holiday
- Nearly a third (32%) stayed at a traditional coastal or seaside town
- 42% said they visited museums, galleries, heritage or cultural sites or events while they were away.
Digital
Internet use was high in England; 93% of adults use it.
- Over half of adults use the internet almost all the time and only 2% accessed it less often than several times a week.
- The most common internet speeds were between 24 and 100 Mb/s.
- 36% of adults were paying between £21 and £30 for their connection.
90% of adults owned a smartphone, whilst 62% owned a laptop.
- However, 52% reported that they do not use personal devices for business purposes.
Most adults in England understood what 5G technology is (72%), and 38% were interested in getting it in the near future, 34% were not.
20% of respondents had taken part in digital or online skills training.
- The majority (53%) that it was very or fairly important for current and future careers, but 46% were not interested in doing any training
Most adults in England were aware of the measures to stay safe and secure online.
- Within this group of adults, the top two ways reported to stay secure were avoiding suspicious links in emails and websites (79%) and using different passwords for online accounts (74%).
In general, adults much preferred to use digital tools for identification (for example, providing a passport number online to verify ID) than using hard copies (for example, showing the original documents in person) for things such as opening a bank account, travelling, accessing benefits, and starting a new job.
Adults in England tended to be more comfortable with the UK government using their data than private companies.
- Respondents were most comfortable with the UK government using data to make public policies which help keep people safe (67%).
- Respondents were most comfortable for private companies to use data to grow the economy and create jobs.
- 42% of adults reported that they were comfortable with private companies using data to develop technology to help people do things more efficiently, compared to 43% who were not.
Major events
Awareness of Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was the highest of all the major events (72%).
Respondents had the least awareness of the UNBOXED event with 4% of respondents that had heard of the event.
Two in five adults had heard of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, whilst one in five had heard of the Coventry City of Culture event.
Figure 1.2: Awareness of selected DCMS major events, England: October 2021 to March 2022.
When asked “How strongly do you feel you belong to the United Kingdom?”, over three quarters (77%) of adults replied “very strongly” and “fairly strongly”, whilst 8% of respondents felt not very strongly or not at all strongly.
Live sports
Over one in six adults (18%) attended live sports in person in the last six months. Of those live sports, in order of popularity:
- football (65%)
- other type of sport (17%)
- rugby (16%).
68% of respondents who watched live sports on TV said all of these events were professional sports where the participants were being paid.