MEDIA RELEASE
18 February 2015	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	20/2015

Australians cultural activity participation rates have remained steady, figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have shown.

"Overall, 27 per cent of Australians aged 15 years and over participated in cultural activities in 2013-14, which is the same rate as 2010-11", said Gary Niedorfer from the ABS.

Of the states and territories, the Australian Capital Territory had the highest participation rate in cultural activities (39 per cent), with Queensland showing the lowest participation in cultural activities recording 24 per cent.

"Women had a higher participation rate than men and they also had different patterns of participation." said Mr Niedorfer.

"Women were more likely than men to participate in textile crafts, jewellery making, paper crafts or wood craft and in sculpting, painting, drawing or cartooning while men were more likely than women to participate in designing websites, computer games or interactive software."

The proportion of people writing any fiction or non-fiction, such as stories, poetry or scripts increased from 4.7 per cent in 2010-11 to 5.6 per cent in 2013-14, while the proportion of people participating in dancing decreased from 3.7 per cent to 3.3 per cent.

Further details are available in Participation in Selected Cultural Activities, Australia, 2013-14 (cat. no. 4921.0), available for free download from the ABS website (http://www.abs.gov.au).


Media notes:

• A cultural activity is defined as a selected creative activity in which a person has participated, which has not been done for secondary or tertiary studies. It excludes activities with no creative aspect such as mending or repairing clothes and home do-it-yourself projects.
• When reporting ABS data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.
• Media requests and interviews - contact the ABS Communications Section on 1300 175 070.