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� Cultural expenditure: typically measured as the share of total household expenditure
devoted to cultural activities (consumption and production), or the average annual
cultural expenditure per household. To reduce the effect of price differentials, cultural
expenditure can be expressed in terms of a purchasing power standard (PPS).
Some potential questions on each of these topics are presented in more detail at the end of this
chapter.
3.2.1 The quantitative approach
This section considers the main potential sources of data, in particular:
� administrative data
� survey data from:
Administrative data
o Audience/visitor surveys: surveys addressed to the audience of a particular
cultural event or initiative in order to collect information about social composition,
behaviours, attitudes, preferences and satisfaction levels for a specific cultural
offer;
o Sample surveys of the general population: surveys addressed to the whole
population living in an area in order to study cultural participation phenomena in a
global and comprehensive way;
o Time use surveys: surveys designed to report data on how, on average, the
population spends and uses its time;
o Household expenditure surveys: particular sample population surveys in which
households are asked to provide data or estimates of the amounts they spend on
consumer goods and services and for other purposes over a given period of time.
Administrative records can be analysed to provide information based on numbers, such as
admissions to museums and galleries, ticket sales for a specific sector, box office returns for
theatre and festival performances, or numbers of people registered as members of a library or
an art association. The availability and the richness of these data can vary considerably from
country to country and within the same country, depending on the quality of administrative
systems (at central and local levels). This information, often, does not identify repeat visits (not
allowing to distinguish between visits and visitors) or the types of visitors (beyond gender, age
and domicile, etc.). It may, however, represent a complete headcount of everyone participating
in such activities, whereas surveys rely on a sample of attendance or attendees which, on its
own, is not enough to calculate the overall volume of attendance.
A broad range of administrative data may be available. Amongst the most common in cultural
participation studies are:
� number of visits to arts/cultural facilities;
� number of visits by institution type (theatre, gallery, museum, festival, etc.);
� number of books/newspapers purchased in any given period of time;
� average usage numbers for cultural centres;
� number of registered library readers;
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