The UK benchmark report 2023/24 is comprised of data gathered by UK cultural organisations using our Indigo Share: Subscription during 2023/24, which gathered 67,000 audience responses.
Where relevant, we made comparisons with previous years and with the census.
Explore the key findings
Profile
- Arts audiences are not representative of the general population - they are older (65% are aged 55+ compared to 35% - 38% in the census*), more likely to identify as White / White British (95% compared to 82% in the England & Wales census*) and less likely to identify as disabled (11% of audiences compared to 18% - 24% in the census*).
- Only 9% of arts attenders have children under 16 living at home.
- Despite being generally slightly better off, audiences are feeling the impact of the cost of living crisis - 56% say their attendance is being impacted 'a little' by financial and economic pressures and 18% 'a lot'.
*Census data shown as the range of metrics due to separate census data from England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Behaviour
- Audiences are looking for entertainment - but many like variety and a challenge too.
- The production itself is the main motivator but the social experience is also very important.
- Special occasions are an important motivator for first-time attenders. Find out more about first-time attenders in our Tomorrow's Audience report →
- Digital marketing channels have grown significantly since 2019/20, with audiences who saw a social media post or advert increasing from 6% to 26% and email from 21% to 37%.
- Audiences are not travelling as far to get to cultural venues as they used to and over half of audiences are getting to cultural venues within half an hour.
Attitude
- Arts attenders are having a wonderful time at cultural venues: the average Net Promoter Score is 71.
- Audiences think staff at cultural organisations are excellent (4.6/5 rating) and say they feel welcome and included.
- They also think the productions are great (4.6/5 rating).
- They consider tickets to be good value for money, but drinks and food come in a little lower.
Impact
- Audiences love sharing the experience with other people (4.3/5 agreement rating).
- Over a third go somewhere locally for drinks and food, contributing to the local economy as part of their visit to an arts organisation.
- Younger audiences in particular don’t think cultural organisations are doing enough to show commitment to sustainability, and only 51% of all audiences agree 'this organisation is demonstrating a clear commitment to environmental sustainability'. Find out what your audiences think by taking part in Act Green 2024 →
- 91% of respondents agree with the statement ‘this organisation is important to our local community' - they value arts organisations and the role they play in society and the wider cultural ecosystem.