The most popular cultural events are the cinema and concerts. In the past 10 years, the share of the population that attended concerts went up from 37 to 50 per cent. One-half of the population aged 10 or over had been to the cinema during the 12 months preceding the survey.
On the basis of royalty payments by the Finnish copyright agency Teosto, it is evident that not only has the number of live music performance increased, so has the variety in the types of music on offer.
Photography is the most popular cultural hobby in the country, and the share of those with photography as their hobby has grown strongly in the past 10 years. The share of those with fine arts, playing a musical instrument or writing as their hobby have remained unchanged.
Women attend cultural events more often than men do, and they also have more cultural hobbies. Attendance of cultural events and cultural hobbies are most widespread among children and young people. Persons aged between 10 and 14 have more creative cultural hobbies than ten years ago.
Narrowing culture gap
Differences in cultural participation have narrowed between population groups. Upper-level salaried employees still attend cultural events more than people in other socio-economic groups do. They also have the highest number of cultural hobbies. However, their interest in cultural hobbies did not increase over the past decade.
In contrast, self-employed farmers, other self-employed persons, production workers, and distribution and service employees today attend cultural events more than they did 10 years ago. Cultural hobbies have also increased among the group.