Record 90% of Scots attend cultural events in 2025 but UK under Labour saw a fall to 85%

From Scottish Household Survey 2025 findings: Cultural Engagement published today:

In 2025, cultural engagement is high. Nine in ten respondents (90%) were culturally engaged through attendance at a cultural event or place, participation in a cultural activity, or both. This has increased from 88% in 2023.

Cinema is the most commonly attended cultural event or place (53%). Reading books, poetry and graphic novels or comics for pleasure is the most common cultural activity (64%) to participate in.

Libraries and museums recorded the largest increases in attendance between 2023 and 2025 (both around six percentage points), followed by live music events, theatres and historic places. Participation also increased across a range of creative and digital activities.

Full report at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/cultural-engagement-in-scotland-2025/

England does not publish a single “overall cultural engagement” percentage that exactly matches Scotland’s composite (attendance or participation across a unified list). Data are broken down by sector (arts, heritage, museums & galleries, libraries, etc.). The nearest broad measure is arts engagement, which includes reading, cinema, and many performance/visual activities and is the highest of the cultural categories. This has fallen from 91% to 83% under Labour:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-and-engagement-survey-202526-summary-report/community-and-engagement-survey-202526-summary-report

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3 thoughts on “Record 90% of Scots attend cultural events in 2025 but UK under Labour saw a fall to 85%”

  1. Let’s remember it’s free entry to museums and national galleries in Scotland, not so In England. We were just talking about that recently, and I think the Labour Eng/Gov when in control of Holyrood/Scotland, imposed entry charges on some museums like the amazing National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Previously named the ‘Royal museum of Scotland’…until the name was changed, I presume when Alex Salmond was FM.

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    1. The Royal Museum of Scotland was combined with the adjacent Museum of Scotland in 2006 to form a single institution known today as the National Museum of Scotland.

      Jack McConnell was the FM.

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  2. Today I welcomed measures to help households and businesses with the cost of living, including the extension of the fuel duty freeze and plans for a 10-year Social and Affordable Housing Programme.

    This from Jamie Stone where people pay the highest to heat their homes said a lot more SNP bad typical

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