Culture statistics 2013

This publication provides updated figures and information about cultural statistics. The main purpose of this publication is to present an overview of available statistics in various cultural fields in Norway.

A selection of some main results within cultural fields in this publication:

Public expenditure

Governmental expenditure on cultural purposes in the Ministry of Culture’s budget for 2013 was just above NOK 9.8 billion, county authorities’ net operating expenditure on cultural purposes was NOK 1.3 billion, and local authorities’ net operating expenditure on cultural purposes was NOK 9.8 billion.

Employment and enterprises in cultural industry

3 per cent of all employed in Norway had their main job within cultural industry in 2013, a total of 79 000 people. More than half of all employed in the cultural industries have their workplace in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger, the four largest cities in Norway. 39.1 per cent of the cultural industry jobs are in Oslo. The cultural industry consisted of 38 000 active enterprises on January 1st 2013.

Art policy measures

In 2013, The Art Council of Norway distributed NOK 577 million from the Norwegian Cultural Fund to several cultural purposes. The sum has increased by NOK 37 million, or more than seven percent in one year. Music, literature and theatre received most; NOK 187.5 million, NOK 164.3 million, and NOK 112.6 million respectively.

Theatre, music and festivals

Combined, members of Association of Norwegian Theatres and Orchestras (NTO) and independent theatre and dance groups had about 2.3 million attenders to their performances in 2013. An accumulated audience of 511 000 attended concerts held by members of NTO in 2013. Close to 1.1 million festival goers went to one of the festivals arranged by members of Norwegian Festivals. The total allocations from The Art Council to music festivals amounted to NOK 46.9 million in 2013.

Museums

In 2013, about 10.9 million people visited Norwegian museums. This is an increase of 280 000 visits since 2012. The number of museum visits has increased by 2.3 million or 28 percent since 2004. The museums hold collections of 51 million registered objects by 2013.

Libraries

Lending of books in public libraries had decreased for four years in a row, whereas the number for renewals has increased. The combination of both, lending and renewals has decreased somewhat since 2010. The number of visits to public libraries has gone slightly up by 1 percent in 2013.

Books

A total of 11 400 titles were published in 2013. Norwegians spent in average 13 minutes on reading a book in their spear time in 2013, this is according to the Norwegian media barometer.

Newspapers

The trend of decline in circulation numbers for paper editions of newspapers continues. The total circulation number for 2013 was 2.2 million, a decrease by 192 000, or 7.9 percent from the year before. There has been a long term decline in paper circulation for newspapers.

Films and cinemas

Cinema attendance has decreased somewhat in 2013, though more attended Norwegian films. In total 11.8 million cinema attendances was registered, of these 2.7 million was for Norwegian films. This is according to ticket sales reported by Film & Kino.

Radio and television

59 percent of the population listened to radio on a typical day in 2013, while 74 percent watched television.

Sports

At the end of 2013 close to 1.9 million members were registered by the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Confederation of Sports. The number of teams has gone up and is now counting to 7 967 teams.