Scottish Government

13 Culture and Sport

INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

The Scottish Government promotes sport and culture because of the benefits brought by each to communities and individuals. The Government aims both to widen access and participation, and to increase excellence, contributing towards the Government's strategic objectives ¹¹⁶ including: Expand opportunities for people in Scotland to succeed from nurture through to life long learning, ensuring higher and more widely shared achievements; Help people to sustain and improve their health, especially in disadvantaged communities, ensuring better, local and faster access to health care; Help local communities to flourish, becoming stronger, safer places to live, offering improved opportunities and a better quality of life.

For the first time in 2007, questions on culture and sport were included in the main Scottish Household Survey ( SHS) interview. ¹¹⁷ The suite of questions covers attending cultural events and places, and participating in cultural and sports activities. As well as establishing attendance and participation, the frequency of undertaking these activities was also investigated. This chapter explores the prevalence and frequency of undertaking cultural activities and attending cultural events and places of culture in the last 12 months and of participation in sport in the last 4 weeks. Differences are investigated in participation at all, and in specific types of activity, among the total population of adults and particular sub-groups of interest. Throughout the analysis, reference to "any activity" means that people do at least one activity from the available list (rather than each and every activity).

Additional tables investigating attendance and participation in culture and sport in more detail are available on the SHS website. ¹¹⁸

PARTICIPATION IN CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

The first question in the section on culture and sports concerns participation in cultural activities (excluding as a result of paid work, school or academic activities). Respondents are asked to say in which activities they have participated during the last 12 months. Figure 13.1 presents the results for adults as a whole.

Almost three-quarters (72%) have participated in cultural activities. Those who participated in culture did, on average, two different types of activity. The predominant activity is reading for pleasure (excluding newspapers, magazines or comics). Almost two-thirds of adults (64%) have read for pleasure in the last 12 months. Dance is the next most popular with 22% having taken part in this. This is followed by crafts such as textile, wood, pottery, etc (12%); playing a musical instrument or writing music (11%); and art or sculpture (10%). Participation rates for each of the other activities are less than 10%.

Figure 13.1: Participation in cultural activities in the last 12 months
2007/2008 data, Adults (Base 19,533)

Participation is further broken down by a number of demographic characteristics in Table 13.1 and Figure 13.2 to Figure 13.4.

Gender and Age

Table 13.1 shows women are more likely than men to have taken part in any of the cultural activities in the past 12 months, 77% and 67% respectively. Participation in any of the cultural activities is similar, around three quarters, for all ages until the age of 75 when it drops to just under two thirds (64%).

Table 13.1: Participation in any cultural activity in the last 12 months by age and gender
Column percentages, 2007/2008 data

Level of qualification

The higher the level of qualification ¹¹⁹ attained the more likely an individual is to have participated in any of the cultural activities in the past 12 months; for example, 55% of those with no qualifications, 79% of those with Highers, 'A' level or equivalent and 87% of those with a degree or professional qualification have participated in any cultural activity in the last 12 months (Figure 13.2).

Figure 13.2: Participation in any cultural activity in the last 12 months by highest level of qualification
2007/2008 data, Adults (Base: 19,232)

Level of Area Deprivation

Figure 13.3 shows that participation in cultural activities in the past 12 months increases as area deprivation reduces. ¹²⁰ In the most deprived areas participation in any cultural activity is below the Scotland average at just under two thirds (63%); this steadily increases to reach 80% in the least deprived areas.

Figure 13.3: Participation in any cultural activity in the last 12 months by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
2007/2008 data, Adults (Base 19,533)

Disability

Figure 13.4 shows that those with a disability, illness or health problem are less likely to participate than those without (63%; 67%; 75% respectively). It also shows that those who have both a disability and a long-term illness are the least likely to participate in any cultural activity (60%).

Figure 13.4: Participation in any cultural activity in the last 12 months by long-standing illness, health problem or disability
Column percentages, 2007/2008 data, Adults (Base 19,533)

FACTORS INFLUENCING PARTICIPATION IN ANY CULTURAL ACTIVITY

In order to understand which individual and household characteristics influence likelihood to participate in cultural activities the data was explored using CHAID analysis. ¹²¹CHAID determines which characteristics or combination of characteristics are most useful in identifying groups of people who have a high or low incidence of a given behaviour, in this case participating in cultural activities. The analysis identified that an individual's highest level of qualification was the key factor influencing their likelihood to participate in cultural activities. Following qualification level the other influencing factors for likelihood to participate were gender and housing tenure. Further explanation of the technique is provided in annex 5 and the output of the analysis is available on the SHS website. ¹²²

Participation in any cultural activity has been broken down by individual activities using the factors the CHAID analysis identified as important, in Table 13.2 to Table 13.5.

Level of qualification

In Figure 13.2 participation in any cultural activity was shown to vary by highest level of qualification. Examination of participation in individual cultural activities shows that this relationship is driven by the predominance of reading for pleasure.

For most other activities, those with Highers or equivalent qualifications, with HNC/ HND or equivalent and with a degree or professional qualification have broadly similar levels of participation. Participation remains lower for activities among those with 'O' Grades or equivalent than those with the various higher level qualifications.

Table 13.2: Participation in cultural activities in the last 12 months by highest level of qualification
Percentages, 2007/2008 data

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed.
From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all adults.

Gender

There are different participation rates for a number of individual activities by gender (Table 13.3). A higher proportion of women than men have read for pleasure and taken part in dance, crafts, art or sculpture. In contrast, men are more likely than women to have played a musical instrument or written music, undertaken photography as an artistic activity, or used a computer to create original artworks or animation. The proportions of men and women undertaking the remaining activities are similar.

Age

Table 13.1 demonstrated that participation in any cultural activity was similar up to the age of 74 and then declined. However, looking at specific activities (Table 13.3) many show a decline in participation with increasing age. This is because the average number of activities in which adults take part declines as age increases. On average, 16-24 year olds say they participate in 2.4 cultural activities while the average for 60-74 year olds is 1.8.

Table 13.3: Participation in cultural activities in the last 12 months by gender and age
Percentages, 2007/2008 data

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed.
From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all adults.

FREQUENCY OF PARTICIPATION IN CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

For each cultural activity, those who participated were asked how frequently they did so in the last year. The results are shown in Table 13.4, presented in order of the percentage of people who participated. As well as being the most common activity overall, reading for pleasure is also undertaken more frequently than other cultural activities. Over eight-in-ten (81%) read for pleasure at least once a week. Playing a musical instrument or writing music is also relatively frequently undertaken by those who participate; over half (56%) of those who undertake this activity do so at least once a week. Making films or video is the activity that adults were the least likely to participate in, and is also undertaken most infrequently.

To aid comparison between different activities, a 'mean' was calculated by assigning approximate scores to the frequency scale used in this question. The resulting scores are shown in the right hand column of the table. These are intended to give a guide to relative frequency rather than a 'true' indication of average frequency with which each of the activities are undertaken. Apart from the three mentioned above, most activities are undertaken roughly 20 times a year by those who participated.

Table 13.4: Frequency of participating in cultural activities in the last 12 months
Row percentages, 2007/2008 data

From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all adults.

To enable mean frequency to be calculated values were assigned to the frequency scales as shown in the table in the headings row. These are approximate values only to aid interpretation of the data.

ATTENDANCE AT CULTURAL EVENTS AND PLACES

The next question in this series concerns attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture (not as a result of paid work, school or academic activities). Once again respondents were asked about the last 12 months. Figure 13.5 presents the results for adults as a whole.

Three quarters (75%) of adults have attended cultural events or visited cultural places in the last 12 months. On average, these people attended approximately three different types of event or place during this time. Viewing a film at a cinema or other venue is the most common; just over half (52%) have done this in the last 12 months. Between a quarter and a third have visited a library (31%); attended a theatrical performance (28%); a live music event (27%) or a museum (26%).

Figure 13.5: Attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture in the last 12 months
2007/2008 data, Adults (Base 19,533)

Total attendance is further broken down by a number of demographic characteristics in Table 13.5 and Figure 13.6 to Figure 13.8.

Gender and Age

Table 13.5 shows that there is little difference by gender in overall attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture; around three-quarters of both men and women have done so in the last 12 months. However, there is a difference according to age, with those aged 75 or older being least likely to attend a cultural event or visit a place of culture (48%) compared with over four-fifths of those aged 16-44 years old.

Table 13.5: Attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture in last 12 months by age and gender
Column percentages, 2007/2008 data

Level of qualification

As with participation in cultural activity, attendance at cultural events and visiting a place of culture increases as highest level of qualification increases (Figure 13.6); Attendance is lowest amongst those with no qualifications (49%) and much higher for those with a minimum level of O Grade (78%). A similar proportion of adults with Highers, 'A' level or equivalent and with HNC/ HND or equivalent have attended cultural events in the last 12 months (86%, 88% respectively), while over nine in ten (92%) of those with a degree or professional qualification have done so.

Figure 13.6: Attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture in the last 12 months by highest level of qualification
2007/2008 data (Base 19,231)

Area Deprivation

Figure 13.7 shows that attendance at cultural events in the last 12 months increases steadily as area deprivation decreases; in the 20% most deprived areas attendance is around two-thirds (65%) increasing to almost nine-in-ten (86%) in the 20% least deprived areas.

Figure 13.7: Attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture in the last 12 months by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
2007/2008 data, Adults (Base 19,533)

Disability

The final chart in this section (Figure 13.8) demonstrates that those with either a disability, illness or health problem, or both, are less likely to attend than those without.

Figure 13.8: Attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture in the last 12 months by long-standing illness, health problem or disability
2007/2008 data, Adults (Base 19,533)

FACTORS INFLUENCING ATTENDANCE AT CULTURAL EVENTS AND VISITING PLACES OF CULTURE

Once again further exploration of the SHS data was undertaken to determine the extent to which various individual and household characteristics influence likelihood to attend cultural events and visit places of culture. As before, the data was explored using CHAID, to understand which factors or combination of factors may be most useful in identifying groups of people who are most likely to attend cultural events and visit places of culture. Once more the analysis revealed that an individual's highest level of qualification was the key factor influencing respondents' likelihood to attend cultural events and visit places of culture. In decreasing order of importance, the other influencing factors for likelihood to attend or visit were net annual household income and employment status. Full explanation and results from the CHAID analysis are listed in annex 2 and the output of the analysis is available on the SHS website. ¹²³

Total attendance and visiting has been broken down by individual events using the factors identified in the CHAID analysis alongside age and gender, in Table 13.6 to Table 13.10.

Gender

Table 13.6 shows some clear gender differences by specific types of event or place. A higher proportion of women than men have visited a library; attended a theatrical event; visited a craft exhibition or attended a ballet or contemporary dance event. In contrast, a higher percentage of men have attended a live music event or place of historical or archaeological interest.

Age

Cinema-going stands out from the majority of other activities in that attendance is greatest for younger adults and declines with age. For example 77% of 16-24 year olds have visited the cinema in the past 12 months compared with 11% of those aged 75 and over. Attending live music events similarly declines with age.

Those aged 75 and over are the least likely of any age group to attend any of the cultural events or places. Around a quarter (24%) have visited a library in the past 12 months, just under a fifth (18%) have attended a theatrical performance, over one-in-ten (13%) a museum and a little over one in ten (11%) have visited the cinema.

Level of qualification

Table 13.7 reveals that, in some contrast to the findings on cultural participation, those having highest qualification at Degree or professional level show clearly the highest attendance for most events. Those with Highers or HNC/ HND form a group with a similar but intermediate level of attendance. Those with a degree show similar levels of attendance to these two groups for attending a film at a cinema or similar venue; approximately two-thirds of each of these groups has seen a film at a cinema or similar venue in the last 12 months.

Household Income

Considering how attendance varies by income, Table 13.8 reveals there is greater attendance as household income increases for nearly all events. The exceptions are going to see a film and attending a live music event where attendance among households with an income of up to £6,000 per annum is the same or higher than among those households with an income between £10,000 and £20,000 per annum.

Table 13.6: Attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture in the last 12 months by gender and age
Percentages, 2007/2008 data

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed.
From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all adults.

Table 13.7: Attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture in the last 12 months by highest qualification level
Percentages, 2007/2008 data

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed.
From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all adults.

Table 13.8: Attendance at cultural events and visiting places of culture in the last 12 months by total annual household income
Percentages, 2007/2008 data

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed.
From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all adults.

FREQUENCY OF ATTENDING CULTURAL EVENTS OR PLACES

Table 13.9 shows the frequency at which those who have visited places of culture or attended cultural events in the last year have done so, shown in descending order of attendance (at any event or place). Strikingly, the frequency with which adults use libraries is higher than any other cultural activity. One-in-five (20%) of those who have used a library in the last year have done so at least once a week and a further 40% have done so less often than weekly but at least once a month.

Once again a 'mean' has been calculated (by assigning approximate scores to the frequency scale used in this question) to provide a relative frequency measure, further highlighting the difference between using a library and all other activities listed. The mean frequency for using a library is 16.6, approximately the equivalent to between once and twice a month. Cinema-going is the next most frequently undertaken, followed by visiting an archive or records office, although this is undertaken by the fewest adults. Attending live music events is the only other activity which is undertaken four or more times a year; all other types of attendance are undertaken less than four times a year on average.

Table 13.9: Frequency of attending cultural events and visiting places of culture in the last 12 months
Row percentages, 2007/2008 data

From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all adults.
To enable mean frequency to be calculated values were assigned to the frequency scales as shown in the table in the headings row. These are approximate values only to aid interpretation of the data.

PARTICIPATION IN SPORT

The final questions in this section investigated levels of participation among adults in sport. A broad definition of sport is used and includes, for example, recreational walking (for more than 30 minutes). For this question, adults were asked about participation in the last four weeks. The results are shown in Figure 13.9.

The 73% of people who had participated in any sport in the last four weeks undertook on average a little over two activities each. By far the most prevalent activity was walking for 30 minutes (for recreational purposes). Over half (56%) had done this in the last four weeks compared with fewer than one-in-five undertaking any other activity. When walking was removed, just over half (53%) of adults had undertaken at least one of the remaining sports activities in the last four weeks. Excluding walking, adults participating in other sports did so in an average of a little over two activities in the past four weeks, broadly comparable to the average when walking is included.

Figure 13.9: Participation in sport in the last four weeks
2007/2008 data, Adults (Base 19,532)

Analysis was undertaken to explore the relationship between participation in sport overall and self-assessed health status. The statistical technique used was correlation using Gamma scores, which determines if there is a relationship between two factors, (in this case the relationship between two variables, self-assessed health and area deprivation) with participation in sport. Further details of the process are provided in Annex 5 and the results of the analysis are available on the SHS website. ¹²⁴

The results revealed a relationship between participation in overall sport excluding and including walking and self-assessed health. Those who rated their own health over the last 12 months as good were more likely to participate in sport (Table 13.10). It is unclear from this to what extent good health is a result of taking part in sport or, instead, to what extent having good health enables participation in sport.

Table 13.10: Participation in any sporting activity and self-assessed health over past twelve months
Column percentages, 2007/2008 data

Table 13.11 shows a trend where levels of participation increase as deprivation of area decreases. That said, the results of the correlation using Gamma scores indicate there is no statistically significant relationship between area deprivation and overall participation in sport, both excluding and including walking.

Table 13.11: Participation in any activity by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
Column percentages, 2007/2008 data

Differences in sports participation levels between genders and between adults of different ages are explored in Table 13.12. The percentage of women who had participated in sport in the last four weeks was lower than the corresponding figure for men (70% versus 76%). Among different age groups, participation was highest among those aged 16 to 24 (86%) followed by those aged 25 to 34 (81%). Thereafter, participation decreased steadily until the age of 75, after which there was a sharp reduction with only 38% of those aged 75 and over engaging in sport in the past four weeks. The range of activities also reduced as age increased; those aged 16 to 24 had participated in between 2 and 3 different activities on average, compared with an average of between 1 and 2 for those aged 75 or over.

Walking was the predominant activity regardless of gender and for all age groups. Similar proportions of men and women had walked for at least 30 minutes for recreational purposes in the past four weeks (54% and 57% respectively). The peak age group for walking was 35 to 44 (61%) and there was rapid decline after the age of 74 (30%).

As participation in walking dominated, the proportion participating in all other sports, excluding walking, was also examined. Over half (53%) of adults had participated in sport (excluding walking). Participation was higher among men (59%) than women (47%) and declined with age (for example 73% of those aged 16 to 24 compared with 18% of those 75 or over had participated in other sports activities).

There were some differences between the other sports and physical activities. The three activities with the highest participation in the last four weeks after walking were swimming (19%), dancing (13%) or taking part in keep fit or aerobics (12%); a higher proportion of women than men had undertaken each of these activities. Participation in all other individual physical activities was higher among men than women.

For the majority of activities (excluding walking), participation in the last four weeks broadly decreased with age. Exceptions to this included: cycling where, similar to walking, the peak age was 35-44 (15% and 62% respectively); swimming and multigym use/weight training which showed higher participation between the ages of 16 and 44 than older; and, golf where a similar proportion of all ages up to 75 had played golf in the past four weeks. Those aged 60 and over were more likely to have played bowls in the last four weeks than any other age group (6% of those aged 60-74 and 5% of those aged 75+), although participation in bowls was relatively low among all adults (4%).

Table 13.12: Participation in sport in the last four weeks by gender and age
Percentages, 2007/2008 data

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed.
From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all adults.

Table 13.13 shows that in nearly all sporting activities, as area deprivation decreased participation increased. The exceptions to this were; football, dance and snooker, billiards or pool which saw similar participation levels across all areas.

Table 13.13 also shows those who rated their health as good in the last 12 months were more likely to participate in the majority of the sports. The exception to this being bowls where similar levels of participation were apparent across all three ratings of health; it is worth bearing in mind that, as demonstrated previously, this is a sport with an older profile of participants.

Table 13.13: Participation in sport in the last four weeks by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation and self-assessment of health in past 12 months
Percentages, 2007/2008 data

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed.
From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all adults.

Having established the percentage of adults taking part in sport in the last four weeks, those who participated in the activities were asked the number of days they had undertaken at least one of them during that period (rather than using a frequency scale) (Table 13.14). This enabled an average to be calculated from the answers provided, which is shown in the last row of the table. On average adults had undertaken at least one of the activities on almost 13 days in the last four weeks, which would equate to a frequency of around 3 days per week. This ranges from a little under a quarter (24%) of adults who say they had participated on most days (21-28 days) in the last four weeks, to three in ten (30%) who had done so on only 1-4 days during that period.

The frequency of taking part in these activities in the last four weeks does not vary by gender nor, broadly, by age. However, perhaps surprisingly, of those participating in any activities, the average number of days in which people participated in sport increased over the age of 60. Three-in-ten (30%) of those aged 75 or over who had participated in any of the activities said that they had done so on average more than five days a week over the four week period prior to the survey. This is the highest percentage of any age group, though fewer had taken part in any sports and the range of activities that this group had engaged in was smaller than those of other, particularly the younger, age groups.

Table 13.14: Frequency of participating in sport in the last four weeks by gender and age
Column percentages, 2007/2008 data

From June 2007, this question was asked of three quarters of the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all adults.