Popularity Of Museums And Galleries

The first major research for five years on museum visiting and satisfaction levels has been published by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). The MORI research found that more than a third of adults aged fifteen or over visited a museum and/or art gallery in the past year (37%) -- more than visited a theme park (23%) or attended the theatre (33%) or a live sporting event (28%).

Almost everyone who has visited a museum in the past year said that they would go to the same venue again in future (92%). Eight in 10 people feel it is important that their local city or town has its own museum or art gallery.

The research sheds new light on what people find most interesting from their museum and/or art gallery visits. Ancient history, how people used to live and local history are of most interest to more than half of all respondents. Of interest to fewer people are geology and geography, modern history and food and agriculture displays.

People's reasons for not visiting have changed in the past five years, with the results reflecting today's increasingly busy lifestyles, as more people cite lack of time as the main reason for not visiting -- up from just six per cent in 1999 to 32% in 2004. But whereas in 1999 41% of people questioned felt that there was nothing in museums they wanted to see, that figure has now halved to 19%. Most people who do use museums go on average 3.5 times a year, with a quarter of visitors attending five or more times.

The press release can be found at www.mla.gov.uk/news/press.asp and the full report of the finding at www.mla.gov.uk/information/publications

Technical details

Questions were placed on two waves of the MORI face-to-face Omnibus, the regular MORI survey among the general public. A nationally representative quota sample of 4,039 adults (aged 15+) was interviewed throughout Great Britain by MORI in 190 different sampling points. Interviewing took place during 29th January - 3rd February 2004 and 12th - 16th February 2004. All interviews were conducted face-to-face in respondent's homes, using CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing).