Culture and participation

Developments in art and culture visits

Visiting art and culture is an important form of leisure activity for many Dutch people. For example, in 2022, 9 out of 10 Dutch people visited a cultural activity at least once a year (Swartjes and de Hoog 2024). If we add up the numbers of different domains for which CBS figures are available, we see that in 2023, 140,3 million visits were made to art and culture - where in 2019 a total of 154,2 million visits took place. From the Dutch Leisure Research – a survey among 28.145 respondents – showed that 2022 million visits to culture took place between November 2023 and November 131 (Hove & Krosse 2024). These included visits to cinemas and film houses, museums/art halls/exhibitions/galleries, historical sites, concerts/music shows and theatre/performance/musical. According to this survey, this puts culture in sixth place among all leisure activities: route-related activities (such as walking and cycling) were in first place, followed by going out (1 million), relaxing (448 million), shopping for pleasure (189 million) and visiting customised (141 million).

Besides the fact that these numbers differ greatly per domain, the CBS figures almost certainly underestimate the visits that people actually make to art and culture. For example, there are no public and nationally comparable figures on the number of visits to festivals, heritage visits outside museums and visits to less formalised locations of art and culture. In the next edition of the VTO, which will be published in the autumn of 2025, a question about the cultural locations that people visit has also been included. This will allow us to provide more insight into the share of visitors to other than established cultural institutions.  

Developments per domain

Visiting culture is organised differently per domain: on the various domain pages we describe developments in cultural visits within domains in more detail. On this page we mainly look at differences between domains. Within all domains for which national data is available, we see a strong dip in the number of visits during the corona years. In 2023 – the last year with available figures – the number of visits is not yet at the 2019 level for all domains. Only for the performing arts does the number of visits in 2023 (20,4 million) exceed the 2019 level (19,3 million) – which is mainly due to an increase in the number of visits to pop music performances (see page Performing arts en Music). For the other domains, the number of visits in 2023 will still be below the 2019 level. For cinemas, this difference is greatest, with 17,7 percent fewer visits in 2023 than in 2019. For libraries (9,3 percent) and museums (6,9 percent), the difference between 2019 and 2023 is smaller.  

Despite differences between domains in visitor numbers after the corona crisis, the domains continue to have a similar relationship to each other. In 2023, libraries were visited most often, followed by museums and cinemas or movie theaters and finally performing arts. The differences in visitor numbers between domains being large is not necessarily strange or attributable to how 'well' a domain is doing. Numbers of visits also depend on the way in which different forms of culture are visited, the capacity of rooms, the number of activities, entrance and ticket costs, opening hours, the way in which a domain is organised (for example whether and how it is subsidised) and are also dependent on the variety of challenges that workers in different domains encounter when organising activities. For example, a library fulfils a very broad function - lending books but also organising activities. As a result, a library does not always have to be visited for a long time. This is different for the other domains: a film or a theatre performance, for example, lasts longer and often requires a ticket - as a result, these domains will also have lower numbers of visits in proportion. The fact that different forms of culture are visited in different ways is also reflected in the differences in visit frequency per domain: where a library was visited an average of 2022 times per year in 11,7, the visit frequency for the other domains is lower on average. 

It is therefore also necessary to view numbers of visits in the light of the established infrastructure and the range of activities offered by organisationsIn the figures below we show 1) the number of establishments and organizations per domain and 2) the number organized activities by domain. The number of branches and service points for libraries has consistently been the highest in all years – as has the number of activities organised in those libraries. The number of activities organised in libraries has also increased steadily in recent years. This confirms the multifunctional role that libraries have increasingly come to play (see domain Literature). After libraries and service points, museums have the most branches. Followed by performing arts and cinemas and movie theaters.  

Art and culture visits by personal characteristics

Visiting art and culture is unevenly distributed across the population (see Swartjes & de Hoog 2024 for the Dutch context and Ateca-Amestoy et al. 2023 in the United States). The share of culture visitors differs most when we look at age, education level and income, as was also shown in previous editions of the VTO (see Annual report 2021). This means that the reach for cultural visits is greatest among young people, people who have graduated from HBO or WO or who fall into the highest income category. The distribution of visitors according to personal characteristics also differs greatly per domain. On the page Culture and participation From 2024 onwards, we will describe the shares of culture visitors according to personal characteristics per domain, namely for Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film, Literature and Heritage.  

Existing social disparities in culture attendance continued to increase during the Covid pandemic (Goedhart et al., 2021). While culture attendance for all groups showed a decline in 2020, this decline was strongest for groups within which culture attendance was already relatively less frequent. For instance, the difference in share of culture attendance between the lowest and highest education categories in 2018 was 22 percent, in 2020 it was 39 percent and in 2022 bounced back to 26 percent. Similar effects were visible for differences in age, household income, national origin (herkomst) and (physical) disabilities.   

Because not everyone visits art and culture equally often, initiatives are being organised in various sectors to make culture more accessible and attainable. On the page Diversity, equity and inclusion we describe in more detail how accessibility is dealt with in the entire cultural sector. On separate domain pages, including for example those of Music en Visual arts, we also discuss how accessibility for cultural visitors is dealt with in various domains.  

Audience data and target group models

Cultural institutions want to gain insight into their (potential) audience: who visits their offer and who doesn't? What do the Dutch do in their free time? The Boekmanstichting contributes with cultural surveys such as the VTO, but these do not provide insight into differences in lifestyles and taste preferences. Audience data and target group models therefore play an increasingly important role in cultural policy, both at cultural institutions and governments. For example, target group models include not only personal characteristics such as age, gender, education level and income, but also characteristics such as life phases, personality types (introvert or extrovert) or (cultural) interests and behaviour. Based on this, an attempt is made to predict behaviour. Examples of frequently used target group models are the Cultural Target Group Model from Rotterdam Festivals, mentality from Motivaction and the Lifestyle finder from MarketResponse.  

Weide points out in his research 'Outline of future collaboration in sharing audience data in the cultural sector'(2022) on the need for independent governance of audience data. Ideally, there is one umbrella party that manages coordination nationally and locally. For example, in 2022, the Taskforce Public Data established, led by DEN Knowledge Institute for Culture & Digital Transformation and financed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (duration until 2024). The Taskforce consisted of seven cultural institutions including Cineville, CJP and Rotterdam Festivals, and aimed to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration around audience data. Projects that emerged from this focused on, among other things, standardization of terms, guidelines for data use and stimulating collaboration between cultural institutions.  

In addition, there are sectoral initiatives that join forces. An example of this is the Digital Information Platform Performing Arts (DIP), which helps cultural institutions gain insight into visitor data and market developments with the Audience Monitor. DIP thus offers an important infrastructure for sharing and analyzing audience data in the performing arts domain.  

Art and culture visits per province

In the Dashboard of the culture monitor, cultural visits in different domains per province can be viewed. On the theme page Culture across the regions we describe in more detail how cultural offerings and visits are distributed across different provinces. The visitor numbers per province show that there are particularly high visitor numbers in the provinces of North and South Holland: for all domains, the number of visits in these provinces is the highest. North Brabant and Gelderland, two provinces that also have many inhabitants, take third and fourth place respectively in terms of the number of visitors to libraries. For the number of visits to films and performing arts, North Brabant also appears to be frequently visited, and for museums Gelderland is in third place. These numbers of visits must also be viewed in relation to the number of inhabitants and offerings in the different provinces. There are various regional monitors, including for Brabant, Zeeland en Gelderland which further elaborate on this and which therefore provide more insight into the cultural offering and reach in the provinces concerned compared to the other provinces in the Netherlands. 

Online visits

During the corona years, online visits were in the spotlight a lot (van der Meulen 2021). The VTO also included questions about online cultural visits and participation in the field of performances and shows, museums and visual arts. A slight increase can be seen in all forms of online visits from 2020 to 2022. How this has developed after 2022, especially given a sharp decrease in online programming, for example at pop venues, remains to be seen (Dee et al. 2022). The VTO figures showed that visiting online performances or shows is fairly evenly distributed across the population (for more information see Culture and participation).  

Developments in the practice of art and culture

Practicing art and culture yourself is an important form of leisure activity for many people. According to figures from the latest edition of the VTO in 2022, 64 percent of Dutch people aged 6 and older have practiced a form of art or culture, or heritage. Art practice (without heritage practice) is done by 55 percent of Dutch people. More and more research is being published into the value of active cultural participation, particularly in the field of well-being and care. A study that combined all these studies found effects of cultural practice at three levels: 1) physical and mental well-being (e.g. pain, stress and anxiety), 2) social and societal level (emotional recognition, self-confidence, connectedness) and 3) cognitive functioning (particularly preventive effect) (Veldman et al. 2023).   

What is striking from the VTO figures is that most forms of both art and culture practice have remained approximately the same over the years since the first measurement in 2012. From the Knowledge synthesis of cultural practice also showed that the share of the population that practices art or culture is stable. However, during the corona period, the practice of more social art forms, such as singing, decreased and the practice of more individual forms increased (Goossens et al. 2024; Swartjes and de Hoog 2024). According to VTO figures, this has recovered again in 2022.  

36 percent of the Dutch population aged 6 years and older does not participate in arts and culture, for arts alone this share is even 45 percent. In the Monitor Amateur Art from 2023, people were asked about reasons for not practicing. The three most common reasons were: 1) lack of interest or interest and preference for other leisure activities, 2) lack of time, and 3) lack of talent or not being creative.   

Art and culture practice by personal characteristics

Arts and culture activities in leisure time are mostly done by younger people (under 19), women and people who have graduated from HBO/WO. People who were born in a top 5 country appear to engage relatively less in arts and culture in their free time – at least where the forms included in the VTO are concerned. Various studies show that parental stimulation is important for cultural practice – in particular the educational level of parents contributes to this (Goossens et al. 2024). 

The distribution of arts and culture activities across the Dutch population is receiving attention, particularly due to the repeatedly demonstrated positive effect of cultural participation and cultural practice (Goossens et al. 2024). In the Administrative agreements on cultural practice 2025–2028, signed by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, representatives of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and the Interprovincial Consultation (IPO) emphasises that all Dutch residents should be able to practice culture and heritage. In addition, importance is attached to a broader concept of culture, because there must be “room for a wide range of cultural expressions, from established forms of cultural practice to new forms of art and creativity”. Monitoring mainly captures established forms of art and culture practice – insight into cultural forms that are not yet (cannot be) included in monitors mainly comes from more theory-forming research (Goossens et al. 2024).  

Arts and culture practice per province

Data from the LISS panel provides insight into the share of cultural practitioners per province. This data differs somewhat from the survey in the VTO and focuses in particular on three categories within the performing arts and a category within visual artsWithin all provinces, the shares of practitioners in the 'Visual Arts' category appear to be the largest in 2022The shares of practitioners for different forms of performing arts differ per province.  

Guidance for art and culture practice

Arts and culture practice is supervised by a large number of 'providers', both in-school and out-of-school (Goossens et al. 2024). Since this page is about practice in leisure time, we focus here on findings regarding out-of-school provision. According to the latest edition of the Association Monitor By 2024, there were more than 10.000 amateur arts associations in the Netherlands. This monitor researches associations or foundations that bring people together to be artistically, creatively or musically active in their free time. 73 percent of the associations focused primarily on music (instrumental & singing) in their offering. This was followed by theatre (17 percent) and dance (5 percent). The large share of associations in Noord-Brabant compared to other provinces is striking.   

The main bottleneck for associations appears to be membership growth and aging (Goossens et al. 2024). Although there are concerns about the aging of members, the share of associations with a lower average age has been increasing since 2018 (Neele 2024). The number of music schools and arts centers has also been decreasing in recent years - partly due to cultural budget cuts - and the number of self-employed people is increasing (Goossens et al. 2024). In the Administrative agreements on cultural practice 2025–2028 It is also mentioned that there are strong differences between and within regions in the opportunities for cultural practice, which will receive attention in the coming years, but it is unclear what this observation is based on.   

Developments in art and culture consumption

Consuming art and culture includes forms that can be viewed, played, read or listened to independently or in groups. Within the VTO, a distinction is made between: 1) read, 2) listening to music, 3) watching films or documentaries and 4) gaming. What is most striking is that large percentages of the population sometimes listen to music, watch films or read a book – namely between 78 percent for reading a book annually and 89 percent for watching a film annually. Gaming is done by more than half of the Dutch population on an annual basis. The fact that this is a lower percentage than other forms of consumption is probably partly due to the fact that gaming is generally a more active form of consumption than other forms. Moreover, this says nothing about the frequency: 21 percent of the population played games on a daily basis in 2022, compared to 14 percent who read a book on a daily basis.  

For all forms of cultural consumption, digital transformation is a relevant topic. More than other forms of cultural participation – since visits and practices generally still often take place physically – cultural consumption also or mainly takes place via digital means. For example, think of the role of streaming services for listening to music and watching films, e-books and audiobooks for reading books, and Games is a leader in its own right in issues surrounding digital transformation. Although music streaming services are playing an increasingly important role – 37 percent of music listeners said they used streaming services daily in 2022 – VTO figures show that other forms of listening are still very important. For example, 53 percent of Dutch people listened to (online) radio daily in 2022 (Blacks and the High 2024). Films and series are watched en masse via streaming services – which could be at the expense of physical cinema visits (see domain page Audiovisual). When it comes to books, the printed form is still the favorite (73 percent), but digital versions are gaining ground: in 2022, 28 percent of Dutch people read an e-book and 15 percent listened to an audiobook.  

Art and culture consumption by personal characteristics

The percentage of Dutch people who consume culture varies greatly by type of cultural activity. For example, listening to music and watching films are widely accepted forms of cultural consumption, while there are clearer differences for reading and gaming. We will therefore discuss the different forms of consumption separately below.  

The 2022 VTO figures showed that reading is particularly popular among women, young people, higher educated people and people with a higher income. Young people read the most: 97-98 percent of 6 to 11 year olds read a book annually in all measurement years (Swartjes and de Hoog 2024). However, this does not mean that their reading skills are good. Reading research by KVB Boekwerk, for example, shows that the older one is, the more frequently one reads (KVB Boekwerk 2022d, 2022e, 2023b, 2024c). And the PISA study shows that the reading skills of 15-year-olds have declined sharply: one in three has insufficient reading skills. The Netherlands even performs below the OECD average and is one of the worst performing countries in Europe (Meelissen et al. 2023, Leesmonitor 2023d). Young people also increasingly experience reading as a less enjoyable activity, with other media often being preferred (Reading Monitor 2023c, 2023d, 2024d). However, there are also positive developments (KVB Boekwerk 2023b). Since 2019, the number of Dutch people who read a book every month has risen to over 60 percent. The number of people who read for pleasure also grew from 48 percent in 2019 to 55 percent in 2023 (Nagelhout et al. 2024, KVB Boekwerk 2024d). Despite concerns about reading skills, reading remains an important leisure activity.  

Listening to music and watching films is hardly unevenly distributed across the population. This means that these forms of consumption are generally widely supported cultural forms. Only small differences are visible for age and education level. Here, the share of music listeners and film viewers among the group of 65 years and older is somewhat smaller than in other age groups and that the shares of listeners and viewers are somewhat higher among HBO and WO educated people. There also appear to be differences by origin with regard to listening to music: people born in a top 5 country or people born outside Europe or a top 5 country listen to less music, at least when they do so via the radio, streaming services or from their own collection, than people of Dutch origin. Despite these differences, these forms of consumption remain widely supported. 

Gaming was particularly popular among men, younger age groups and the so-called 'middle class' (Swartjes and de Hoog 2024). More than half of men and almost half of women indicated that they had played games in 2022. Gaming is also more popular among younger age groups. While more than 80 percent of young people under the age of 19 play games, this decreases sharply, especially in the highest age groups. Despite the fact that it is a more popular form of leisure activity for young people, there are also many gamers in higher age groups. For example, 53 percent of 35-49 year olds play a game on an annual basis. Gaming appears to be an extremely popular form of leisure activity among the middle category, both in terms of income and education level. For example, almost half of the people who graduated within the middle category played games in 2022 and 57 percent of people belonging to the 3rd quintile did so.