Norwegian cultural barometer, 2000

The percentage attending popular music concerts increased from 32 to 39 per cent in the course of the 1990s. For cinemas, the percentage rose from 58 to 65 per cent.

Most go the movies

In the last 12 months in 2000, cinema was the most popular cultural offering among the majority of people aged 9-79, attracting 65 per cent of the population. Sports events and public libraries were next, bringing in 57 and 52 per cent respectively. 50 per cent go to the theatre annually. This means that half of the population or more annually avail themselves of these offerings. 45 and 44 per cent respectively go to museums and art exhibitions.

Sports events are attended the most frequently

When cultural offerings are ranked according to how many times the average Norwegian goes to them in the course of a year, sports events come out on top, with 5.2 visits. Next in line are public libraries, with 5.0 visits and the cinema, with 4.3 visits.

Two out of three have never been to the opera

66 per cent of Norways population have never been to an opera or operetta, and 62 per cent have never been to a ballet or dance performance. On the other hand, only one per cent has never been to the cinema. Two per cent have never been to a museum and five per cent have never been to a sports event or public library.

Women and children first

Both women and children score high with respect to the use of cultural offerings. Women go to the theatre, ballet performances, classical music concerts, art exhibitions and public libraries more frequently than men. On the other hand, men attend sport events much more frequently and go to more popular music concerts.

Children aged 9-15 have the highest annual rate of attendance of sports events, the ballet, museums and public libraries. Young people constitute the majority of the audience at the cinema and popular music concerts. Audiences at other cultural offerings are fairly evenly distributed among the age groups.