Census data ‘a goldmine’ for cultural policymakers

The census takes place every 10 years – it’s a mammoth undertaking. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and equivalent agencies aim to collect data on the entire population. In 2021, the overall response rate in England and Wales was 97%. 

Compared with high-quality survey data – which is a crucial part of the toolkit – the census offers a few critical advantages. In survey work, we can make statements about groups of occupations like ‘music, performing and visual arts’, but we have to qualify findings by pointing out margins of error. 

With 97% of the population involved, we’re not dealing with uncertainty in the same way. We can also segment that big group to distinguish between musicians, dancers and choreographers, artists and people working in other occupations.

We can also provide much more geographical detail. Not only can we make statements about how many people said their main job was working as an artist, but we can also compare how many said that in Birmingham, Bromley or Buckinghamshire. This means we can offer fascinating detail on who arts, culture and heritage workers are, and where they are.

Characteristics of cultural workers

As shown in our newly published report Arts, Culture and Heritage: Audiences and Workforce, part of the Creative PEC State of the Nations series, the picture of diversity in these occupations is more complicated than previously reported. 

While arts, culture and heritage occupations employ roughly equal numbers of men and women, the variation is wide: 84% of dancers and choreographers are women for example, while 72% of musicians are men. 

We also highlight characteristics that have received less attention. Every occupation in our group has a higher-than-average percentage of people who report no religion. In the case of arts officers, producers and directors, the figure is 61%, compared with 41% in all other occupations. 

And all occupations have lower-than-average percentages of people who report being heterosexual or straight. For actors, the figure is 79%, compared with 91% of all other occupations.

In terms of geographical variation, the 10 local authorities with the largest percentages of people working in arts, culture and heritage are all in London, with Hackney first at 8.6%. Outside London, Brighton and Hove is the highest-ranking at 4.7%. 

And when we zoom in to a more local level, this concentration in London becomes even more visible. There are two electoral wards where the figure is 13%, in Highgate (Camden) and Clissold (Hackney). The 24 wards with more than 10% of the working population in arts, culture and heritage occupations are all in London, as are 94 out of the top 100. 

Given how much of a goldmine the census is, we can’t describe everything in the report, but we’ve published dashboards that allow you to interrogate the data yourselves. The first gives greater geographic detail, enabling users to zoom in to understand local dynamics, or to see how the geographic patterning of particular occupations in particular areas might differ from the overall picture. 

The second dashboard enables further interrogation of the diversity of occupations. We’ve published data about sex, ethnic group, religion, age, disability and sexuality, so anyone can see the interaction between any of these characteristics.

This is made possible by the work of the ONS and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. In Scotland, the census was conducted a year later so we’re hoping to publish similar data next year.

Evidence-based decision making

Policymakers charged with growing the creative industries need access to high-quality, timely data on supply and demand for arts, culture and heritage, as they do for all other sectors. So, Creative PEC made it one its four priorities for the new State of the Nations series. 

Data helps local authorities better understand the needs of their locality and develop tailored policy interventions to improve local access to cultural employment and experiences. This latest report – with the interactive dashboards – affords local authorities granular insights down to ward level, helping them identify opportunities and barriers in particular places. 

These insights are essential both for designing policy interventions and for broader cultural strategy development but they also highlight where targeted investment is needed to improve inclusivity and access. 

In a financially difficult landscape, these resources can help policymakers identify local specialisms, build on strengths and create coalitions and collaborations in their communities. 

Persistent inequalities

The report reveals persistent inequalities. It adds to a growing evidence base from the Creative PEC and others making the case for strategic action to address Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) barriers. This includes the Creative PEC's The Good Work Review, the Creative Diversity All Party Parliamentary Group Creative Majority report and policy recommendations, and the House of Lords' At risk: our creative future’ report. 

Policymakers at local, regional and national levels could consider embedding EDI targets and measures more explicitly in place-based cultural interventions, with a baseline included to track progress against over time.

The DCMS and ONS could explore increasing data on EDI in arts, culture and heritage within existing surveys to provide more statistically robust and higher resolution analysis on specific characteristics and on intersectionality. Non-standard and non-statutory cultural datasets could also further expand sector knowledge. 

We hope these new resources and interactive maps will fuel discussion and action and will help evidence-based decision-making in the arts, culture and heritage sectors. 

Policy considerations 

Policymakers are critical to improving the evidence base. What constitutes the arts, culture and heritage sectors for the purposes of policy formulation is perhaps more problematic than in other areas of economic policy for the simple reason that people’s conception of arts, culture and heritage can differ greatly.
 
We have adopted a pragmatic approach and reported on data where high-quality, publicly available official data sources can be found, while fully acknowledging the risks of painting an incomplete picture. 

Inevitably this means less formally organised activities – both employment and engagement – are less well represented, but they are no less important for policymakers. In future issues we hope, through exploring more novel data sources, to address these gaps in the data.

Dr Mark Taylor is Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods at the University of Sheffield and Creative PEC Research Partner for Arts, Culture and Heritage. 
 pec.ac.uk/ | sheffield.ac.uk/smi
@CreativePEC | @markrt 

The report Arts, Culture and Heritage: Audiences and Workforce is published by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, which is led by Newcastle University with the Royal Society of Arts and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).