Scottish Government

DESCRIPTION:

The indicator measures the percentage of adults who have either participated in at least one cultural activity or who have attended or visited at least one cultural event or place in the last 12 months.

SOURCE:

The figures for this indicator come from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) which is a National Statistics product. Scottish Government are the owners of the data.

The data are published in the Scottish Household Survey Annual Report, which is published annually in August via www.scotland.gov.uk/SHSAnnualReport.

The SHS asks a randomly selected adult in the household whether they have participated in a cultural activity in the last 12 months.  It also asks whether adults have attended a cultural event or visited a place of culture in the last 12 months.  The “Increase cultural engagement” indicator is measured by identifying all adults who have said that they have either participated in a cultural activity or who attended or visited at least one cultural event or place in the last 12 months.

Results at Local Authority level are available annually for the larger Local Authorities and every two years for the smaller Local Authorities.

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) previously used a fairly simplistic weighting strategy, where no additional corrective weighting was applied to the data beyond that required to account for sample design and differential response rates between Local Authorities.

Following a review completed in 2009, a new weighting strategy has been implemented which accounts for both the basic design weights (the old strategy) and any residual mismatch between the profile of responding households/adults and the profile of the population. All SHS estimates are now calibrated against household and population estimates produced by the General Register Office for Scotland.

Further information can be obtained from: www.scotland.gov.uk/SHSMethodology

BASELINE AND PAST TRENDS:

The baseline year is 2007 as this is the last data point before the start of the first term of the current administration. The baseline figure is 86.5%.

Percentage of adults who have participated in a cultural activity or attended a place of culture in the past 12 months

CRITERIA FOR RECENT CHANGE ARROW:

This evaluation is based on: any difference within +/- 2 percentage points of last year's figure suggests that the position is more likely to be maintaining than showing any change. An increase of 2 percentage points or more suggests the position is improving; whereas a decrease of 2 percentage points or more suggests the position is worsening.

For more information on the general methodology applied on Scotland Performs:

General methodological approach

FUTURE ISSUES OR REVIEWS:

The wording of the culture attendance and participation questions will change in the Scottish Household Survey from 2012 onwards.  The last data point the previous questions will report on will be for 2011 and this will be published in August 2012.  Results from the new culture questions will be first reported in the Scottish Household Survey in 2013.  These will relate to 2012.  The Scotland Performs direction of change arrow will continue to be based on results from previous questions until two years worth of data (2012 and 2013) are available from the new questions.  This will take place at some point in 2014.

ASSOCIATED TARGET:

No associated target.