The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of Survey on Participation of Residents in Cultural Activities conducted, for the first time, in the second quarter of 2013. This Survey aims to collect data on residents aged 16 and above, regarding their participation in cultural activities such as going to cinema, visiting museum or World Heritage site, going to library, attending performance and art exhibition, six months prior to the date of interview. Excluding those participate due to working or learning.

In the second quarter of 2013, a total of 285,000 participated in cultural activities and the cultural activity participation rate (percentage of those participate in cultural activities to the population aged 16 and above) stood at 56.7%, up by 1.8 percentage points in comparison with 54.9% in the second quarter of 2012.

Analysed by type of cultural activity, there were 163,000 going to cinema, up by 10.8% year-on-year; in addition, this type of activity was more popular among youngsters, with the participation rate of those aged 16-24 reaching 63.1% when the participation rate of those aged 55 and above was merely 10.0%.

Those visiting museums or World Heritage sites totalled 137,000, an increase of 12.4% year-on-year. The majority were the middle-aged and the elderly; the participation rate for the residents aged 35-44 was 34.5% and those aged 45-54 was 23.3%. The average visit per participant was 3.1 and 67.9% of the participants visited at least twice.

There were 116,000 going to the library, up by 4.8% year-on-year. Among the participants, the participation rate of students reached 68.4%, higher than the rate of non-students (18.4%) by 50.0 percentage points.

Those attending performances totalled 104,000, down by 3.1% year-on-year. Analysed by age group, the participation rate of those aged 16-24 had the highest rate of 30.0%, with an average attendance of 1.9 performances per participant. Moreover, the participation rate of those aged 45-54 was 16.3%, and 16.4% for those aged 55 and above; the average attendance per participant was 2.6 and 2.7 performances respectively.

There were 42,000 attending art exhibitions, up by 2.1% year-on-year. It is noteworthy that 94.7% of those attending art exhibitions also took part in other types of cultural activities.