European Statistics on Cultural Attendance and Participation and Their International Comparability

Abstract

This paper will consider a number of issues. Section 1 will address the question of why cultural attendance and participation is important and why therefore reliable statistics are needed. Section 2 will highlight the need for comparable EU statistics, and comment on the limited data available in existing EU-wide surveys, thereby placing almost exclusive reliance on national surveys for EU comparison. Section 3 will address the difficulties that arise in comparing such national surveys. Section 4 will outline the main features of national surveys in three large European countries, England, Italy and Spain. Section 5 will use these surveys to illustrate, in a very preliminary way, some of the issues discussed earlier in the paper.

Keywords: National Survey Comparison, European Countries, Attendance, Culture