Cultural and creative activities, Australian Bureau of Statistics, April 2025
Statistics about participation in and attendance at selected cultural and creative activities, for adults and children (aged 5-14 years).
Key statistics
In 2021-22,
- women (39%) were more likely to participate in cultural activities than men (25%)
- 90% of children participated in screen based activities, with 24% of those children spending 20 hours or more per week
- 44% of people attended the cinema, the most popular cultural venue or event
- children’s attendance at cultural venues or events fell from 94% to 80% between 2017-18 and 2021-22.
This publication presents data from the Cultural participation and attendance survey 2021-22. Outputs from previous survey collections were presented in two publications:
Participation in Selected Cultural Activities, 2017-18
Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues and Events, Australia, 2017-18
Refer to these publications for previous data.
Impact of COVID-19 in this publication
Statistics in this release may have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the enumeration of the Cultural participation and attendance survey 2021-22, respondents were asked if they had attended or participated in cultural activities in the previous 12 months. As a result, this collection spans July 2020 – June 2022.
For more information about the impacts of COVID-19, see Methodology
Adults’ participation
In 2021-22, one third (32%) of adults participated in at least one cultural activity, compared with 31% in 2017-18.
Of all adults:
- women were more likely to participate (39%) than men (25%)
- people aged 15-24 years were more likely to participate (41%) than any other age group
- 19% only participated in one activity type.
