The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of Survey on Participation of Residents in Cultural Activities for the second quarter of 2019. This Survey aims to collect information on participation of individuals aged 16 and above in cultural activities in the six months prior to the date of interview. Cultural activities include going to the cinema, going to a library, visiting a museum or World Heritage site, and attending a performance or art exhibition.

In the second quarter of 2019, a total of 304,200 individuals participated in cultural activities; the cultural activity participation rate (percentage of individuals participating in cultural activities in the population aged 16 and above) was 54.4%, up slightly by 0.1 percentage point year-on-year. Local residents participating in cultural activities totalled 257,200, with the participation rate rising by 0.3 percentage points to 57.0%.

Analysed by type of cultural activity, going to the cinema remained the most popular activity for local residents, with the number of participants growing by 0.6% year-on-year to 166,500; yet, the activity participation rate fell slightly by 0.1 percentage point to 36.9%. Local residents who had watched locally produced films and videos increased by 7.7% year-on-year to 32,300. Meanwhile, 306,200 local residents had watched movies on the Internet or from discs, up by 8.3% year-on-year.

Number of local residents going to libraries increased by 4.6% year-on-year to 137,600, and the activity participation rate rose by 1.1 percentage points to 30.5%. Student participation rate grew by 4.6 percentage points to 81.4%, which was about 3.1 times as high as the rate for non-students (26.3%). The difference between the two rates widened from 51.7 percentage points in the second quarter of 2018 to 55.1 percentage points.

Local residents visiting museums or World Heritage sites recorded a relatively large decrease, down by 14.4% year-on-year to 86,200. Those visiting museums (61,000) and World Heritage sites (58,200) dropped by 12.4% and 12.6% respectively. The main reasons for not participating were “No interest” (65.3%) and “No time” (46.0%). Despite a fall in number of participants, the average number of visits edged up by 0.1 year-on-year to 3.2.

There were 78,000 local residents attending performances, down by 3.8% year-on-year. The average attendance per participant inched up by 0.2 to 2.3. Music/dance performances saw higher number of participants, at 59,700; meanwhile, 34,000 local residents went to theatre performances.

Local residents attending art exhibitions totalled 34,000, a decrease of 5.4% year-on-year. The average visit per participant increased by 0.4 to 2.4. Among these local residents, 95.5% also participated in other types of cultural activities, and the proportion of those who took part in three or more types of activities accounted for 72.4% of the total.