Contents
- Digital arts participation statistics: overall digital arts engagement
- Digital arts participation statistics: online performances and arts media
- Digital arts participation statistics: creative activity and digital platforms
- Digital arts participation statistics: participation by age and demographic group
- Digital arts participation statistics: frequency and access to digital arts
- Sources
Digital arts participation statistics: overall digital arts engagement
Digital arts participation statistics cover several kinds of activity: watching performances online, exploring arts media, creating work digitally and taking part in lessons or tours. The measures below come from national surveys in England, Australia and the United States. They describe distinct populations and survey years, so they are best read within each study rather than combined into a single international rate.
In England, 35% of adults aged 16 and older digitally engaged with the arts at least once in the last 12 months in 2024/25. The Participation Survey ran from April 2024 through March 2025, and its annual measure asks about the previous 12 months. Since respondents completed the survey at different times, their reference periods vary with their completion date. The report also records 27% digital arts engagement in 2021/22. It describes the later figure as an 8 percentage point increase; 2021/22 fieldwork covered 6 months, a qualification when reading the time series. Source: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Participation Survey 2024/25
A separate overlap measure helps describe how digital engagement relates to in-person arts activity. Among adults who engaged with the arts in England in 2024/25, 34% engaged both physically and digitally. This is a share of arts-engaged adults in an overlap breakdown, not a share of all adults. The distinction matters: the overall digital engagement estimate uses all adults as its base, while the overlap statistic describes people who engaged with the arts. Source: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Participation Survey 2024/25
Digital arts participation statistics: online performances and arts media
England’s 2024/25 results show that online arts engagement included both recorded and live event viewing. Among adults aged 16 and older, 20% watched a prerecorded music or dance event digitally during the last 12 months. Another 16% watched a live music or dance event as it was happening. The survey reports these as separate activities, and respondents may have done more than one kind of digital arts activity. Source: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Participation Survey 2024/25
Other arts media also appeared in the English activity list. In 2024/25, 9% watched a prerecorded arts event that included theatre, visual arts or literature. That figure is for the combined category as reported; the supplied result does not break it into separate rates for theatre, visual arts and literature. Together, the three indicators show the survey’s recorded-event and live-event categories, alongside a broader prerecorded arts category. They do not measure all possible online cultural activity. Source: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Participation Survey 2024/25
The U.S. National Endowment for the Arts brief uses a different instrument and activity list. In 2022, 70% of U.S. adults aged 18 and older responding to the General Social Survey Arts Module watched or listened to an archived web performing-arts event in the most recent 12 months. The corresponding share for livestreamed performing-arts events was 43%. These are module respondent rates and refer specifically to archived and livestreamed performing arts. They should not be treated as directly comparable to England’s individual activity estimates, which come from a different survey and use different categories. Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Online Audiences for Arts Programming (2022 GSS Arts Module)
The same U.S. module reported that 32% listened to an arts-related podcast in the most recent 12 months. This extends the picture beyond performance viewing: arts media participation can include listening as well as watching. The podcast measure remains a defined survey activity, rather than a general estimate of all arts-related audio use. Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Online Audiences for Arts Programming (2022 GSS Arts Module)
| Survey and population | Activity and period | Share |
|---|---|---|
| England, adults aged 16+, 2024/25 | Watched prerecorded music or dance in the last 12 months | 20% |
| England, adults aged 16+, 2024/25 | Watched live music or dance as it happened in the last 12 months | 16% |
| England, adults aged 16+, 2024/25 | Watched prerecorded theatre, visual arts or literature in the last 12 months | 9% |
| United States, GSS Arts Module respondents aged 18+, 2022 | Watched or listened to archived web performing arts in the most recent 12 months | 70% |
| United States, GSS Arts Module respondents aged 18+, 2022 | Watched or listened to livestreamed performing arts in the most recent 12 months | 43% |
| United States, GSS Arts Module respondents aged 18+, 2022 | Listened to an arts-related podcast in the most recent 12 months | 32% |
Sources: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Participation Survey 2024/25; National Endowment for the Arts, Online Audiences for Arts Programming (2022 GSS Arts Module)](https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/GSS-Brief-Dec2023-Revision.pdf)
Digital arts participation statistics: creative activity and digital platforms
Digital participation also includes making art or learning creative skills online. Australia’s 2022 National Arts Participation Survey found that 18% of the population aged 15 and older created art or learned to create art online. The survey was fielded in September and October 2022 and used a nationally representative sample of 9,396 people. This broad measure concerns online art creation or learning; it does not mean that every respondent used the same tools or platform. Source: Creative Australia, Creating Value: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey 2022
A separate Australian measure focuses on self-expression through digital platforms. In 2022, 31% of Australians aged 15 and older used digital platforms for creative expression, with examples including making videos, music or songs, digital illustrations and podcasts. The broader framing of this indicator differs from the online art creation measure above, so the two percentages describe related but not identical activities. Source: Creative Australia, Creating Value: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey 2022
Age-specific results in the same survey show a higher reported level of platform-based creation among younger respondents. Among Australians aged 15–24, 62% used digital platforms to create art, including videos, image galleries, memes, and music or songs. This age-specific figure has a narrower population than the overall 31% digital creative-expression measure. It describes respondents aged 15–24 and the listed creation activities, not all Australians. Source: Creative Australia, Creating Value: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey 2022
The 2022 U.S. module adds learning and online exploration to the range of digital arts activities. Among U.S. adults aged 18 and older who responded, 27% attended an online art class or lesson in the most recent 12 months. The report notes that classes or lessons could include watching instructional videos. Another 25% toured an online art museum, gallery or exhibit during that period. These categories reflect participation through instruction and virtual visits, not just performance audiences. Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Online Audiences for Arts Programming (2022 GSS Arts Module)
Digital arts participation statistics: participation by age and demographic group
In England, the 2024/25 digital engagement rate differed across age bands. Adults aged 45–49 recorded 38%, above the England average of 35%. For adults aged 55–79, the report gives a range of 38% to 41% across age bands, also above the average. The range is not a pooled estimate for everyone aged 55–79; it represents the rates reported for bands within that span. Source: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Participation Survey 2024/25
The reported figures were lower for younger age bands in England. Adults aged 16–39 had rates ranging from 30% to 32% across age bands, below the 35% England average. Among adults aged 85 or older, 27% engaged digitally with the arts. These results show variation across the age categories included in the report, but they do not establish why the rates differed. Source: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Participation Survey 2024/25
The U.S. 2022 module presents a different age comparison using a broader threshold: whether a respondent did at least one digital arts activity in the last year. The rate was 95% among respondents aged 18–24 and 68% among those aged 75 and older. Because this measure counts any one or more activities, it should not be confused with a rate for a single activity such as watching an archived performance. Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Online Audiences for Arts Programming (2022 GSS Arts Module)
The same U.S. report also describes differences by gender and race or ethnicity. Among respondents, 85% of women reported engaging with any type of digital arts activity, compared with 80% of men. At least once in the last year, 91% of non-Hispanic Black or African American respondents reported engaging with digital arts content, while the corresponding figure for non-Hispanic White respondents was 79%. The race and ethnicity categories retain the report’s non-Hispanic definitions; these figures are survey subgroup results, not explanations for participation differences. Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Online Audiences for Arts Programming (2022 GSS Arts Module)
| Survey and subgroup | Measure | Share |
|---|---|---|
| England, ages 45–49, 2024/25 | Digital arts engagement in the last 12 months | 38% |
| England, age bands from 55–79, 2024/25 | Digital arts engagement across age bands | 38%–41% |
| England, age bands from 16–39, 2024/25 | Digital arts engagement across age bands | 30%–32% |
| England, age 85+, 2024/25 | Digital arts engagement in the last 12 months | 27% |
| United States, ages 18–24, 2022 | At least 1 digital arts activity in the last year | 95% |
| United States, ages 75+, 2022 | At least 1 digital arts activity in the last year | 68% |
| United States, women, 2022 | Any type of digital arts activity | 85% |
| United States, men, 2022 | Any type of digital arts activity | 80% |
| United States, non-Hispanic Black/African American respondents, 2022 | Digital arts content at least once in the last year | 91% |
| United States, non-Hispanic White respondents, 2022 | Digital arts content at least once in the last year | 79% |
Sources: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Participation Survey 2024/25; National Endowment for the Arts, Online Audiences for Arts Programming (2022 GSS Arts Module)](https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/GSS-Brief-Dec2023-Revision.pdf)
Digital arts participation statistics: frequency and access to digital arts
Frequency and access measures add context to whether people take part at all. In England, among adults who physically or digitally engaged with the arts, 33% reported digital engagement 3 to 4 times a year as their most frequent level. The denominator here is arts-engaged adults, not all adults and not only digital participants. It describes the most frequent level reported in the survey’s frequency breakdown. Source: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Participation Survey 2024/25
The English survey also reports how digitally engaged adults accessed arts content. Among adults who digitally engaged with the arts in 2024/25, 46% accessed content free of charge, and 25% paid for a monthly or annual subscription. Both figures are conditional on digital arts engagement; they are not percentages of all adults. The supplied results identify these access routes without assigning reasons for choosing them or indicating that the categories cover every payment arrangement. Source: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Participation Survey 2024/25
These measures describe different dimensions of digital arts participation: annual reach, specific activities, creative production, subgroup rates, frequency and access. Their populations, question wording and periods vary across England’s 2024/25 Participation Survey, Australia’s 2022 survey and the U.S. 2022 GSS Arts Module. Keeping those scopes attached to each figure makes the statistics useful without implying that the surveys measured the same thing.