Museums - Taking Part Survey 2019/20
Published 16 September 2020
Applies to England
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The Taking Part survey asks questions on whether respondents have visited a museum. The survey questions for 5-10 year olds are completed by an adult on behalf of the child and ask about activities done outside of school only. The interview for 11-15 year olds is conducted with the young person themselves and the questions cover visiting done both in school lessons and outside of school.
In 2019/20, 59% of children aged 5-15 years old had visited a museum in the last 12 months. This is a similar level to in 2018/19 (62%).
Figure 3.1: Museum engagement in the last 12 months by age group, 2008/09 to 2019/20
1. 5-10 year olds
In 2019/20, 61% of children aged 5-10 had visited a museum outside of school. This is similar to 2018/19 (63%).
There was no significant difference in museum engagement between males and females for children aged 5-10 years old, with 64% of boys and 58% of girls visiting a museum at least once in the last 12 months.
2. 11-15 year olds
In 2019/20, 56% of children aged 11-15 had visited a museum either in school or outside school in the last 12 months, a similar level to in 2018/19 (60%). There was no significant difference in engagement between gender for 11-15 year olds, with rates of 56% and 55% for boys and girls respectively in 2019/20.
More 11-15 year olds had visited a museum outside of school only (33%) than with school only (11%). A further 12% of children had visited both in and outside of school. The trend of higher engagement with museums during outside of school time is consistent with previous years since 2013/14, when this question was first introduced.
Figure 3.2: Proportion of 11-15 year olds that had visited a museum or gallery in the last 12 months, split by in and out of school engagement, 2018/19 and 2019/20
