Quick Facts

Participation

Australians actively participate

• 32% of adults and 94% of 5-14 year olds participated (rather than just attending or observing) in artistic/cultural creation or performance in 2021-22.^[SOURCE] 
• 97% of Australians engage with the arts. 15% are involved in community arts. 68% attend live events.
• One in two Australians believe the arts build creative skills that will be necessary for the future workforce.
• 72% of Australians believe that artists make an important contribution to Australian society.
• Australians have clear priorities for arts investment. The top two priorities are ensuring young people have access to art and creative experiences to support their learning and development (65% ranked this in their top three priorities for public or private investment), and ensuring free or low-cost events are available (68%). Half of Australians think funding should ensure art and creative experiences are available to support our health and wellbeing.
• In terms of barriers to engaging with the arts, 55% of Australians said cost of ticket/entry, and 40% said too far away/not near where I live. ^[SOURCE] 

The Economy

In 2022-23, Australia’s broad cultural and creative sector contributed $63.7 billion to GDP, representing 2.5% of the economy and comparable to industries like Agriculture and Forestry.

The sector employed approximately 282,000 people in 2021, 2.4% of the total Australian workforce. The growth of the artistic workforce has not kept pace with the growth of the overall labour force, suggesting there are barriers to creative work.  ^[SOURCE] 

The average total income of artists is 26% below the workforce average, and below similarly skilled professionals (eg, accountants, lawyers), with half of artists earning under $10,000 from their creative work.  ^[SOURCE] 

Despite challenges, the number of businesses in the cultural and creative industries grew by 8.9% between 2021 and 2023, reaching approximately 95,700 businesses.  ^[SOURCE] 

Per-capita expenditure on arts and culture by all levels of government continued to decline. In 2021, Australia’s spending as a share of GDP on ‘recreation, culture and religion’ remained lower compared to most OECD peers, with Australia ranking 26th out of 33 OECD countries. ^[SOURCE] 

Australians are significant consumers of culture with more than $45.6 billion in annual household expenditure being spent within the entertainment and recreation industry. ^[SOURCE] 

Society

• In 2023, half (50%) of Australians believe ‘our society is broken’. ^[SOURCE]
• In 2022, one in five people aged 15 years and over (20%) reported feeling lonely. ^[SOURCE]

How arts and culture helps build a more cohesive society:

• Build feelings of community, belonging, and trust 
• Enhance empathy and inclusion 
• Help combat the growing issues of loneliness and isolation 
• Help individuals and communities to recover from disasters and trauma 
• Increase civic participation 
• Make cities, suburbs and regions more liveable. ^[SOURCE] 

Research indicates that investing in programs and activities that ensure all Australians have opportunities to access a broad variety of arts and cultural experiences from a young age, irrespective of their family’s location or financial position, can help to break down social inequities. ^[SOURCE] 

Health and Wellbeing

Social and economic factors contribute to 40% of determinants for health outcomes (includes social support, education, job status, income and community safety). Others are health behaviours, 30%; health care, 20%; and physical environment, 10%. ^[SOURCE] 

A ground breaking 2003 study of approximately 500 individuals aged 75 and older found that reading, playing board games, playing musical instruments, and dancing were associated with a lower risk of dementia. Follow up studies since 2003 have supported this finding. ^[SOURCE] 

Arts and cultural engagement has been shown to: 

• enhance social inclusion
• reduce loneliness
• increase confidence
• improve feelings of self-worth. 

These outcomes, in turn, have a direct and positive impact on both physical and mental health. In fact, in 2016 Australian researchers produced the first dose-response-style study of arts and mental health, showing that two-hour “doses” of creative activities per week could enhance mental wellbeing in a general population. ^[SOURCE] 

Australia had its worst social cohesion results on record in 2023. Loneliness and social isolation have worsened since COVID-19. People’s sense of belonging and pride in Australian culture declined between 2007 and 2022. ^[SOURCE] 

Education and Learning

Research shows that Australian students who actively engaged with arts, culture and creative activities had higher levels of motivation and self-discipline, better self-esteem, higher life satisfaction and were better at bouncing back from academic setbacks. ^[SOURCE] 

Australia’s teenagers rank fourth in the world for creative thinking. The OECD’s first-ever assessment of creative thinking has revealed that this is an area of comparative strength for Australia. There is new evidence that specific arts and cultural activities – both within and outside educational environments – could contribute to improved creative and critical thinking.^[SOURCE]

US students from low-income families who participated in arts and culture at school were: three times more likely to earn a university degree; twice as likely to volunteer; and 20% more likely to vote as young adults. ^[SOURCE] 

Major findings on the positive effects derived by those involved in arts-rich education programs include:

• positive achievements in reading, language and mathematics development;
• evidence of increased higher order thinking skills and capacities;
• evidence of increased motivation to learn;
• improvements in effective social behaviours ^[SOURCE] ;
• providing ways of engaging those students who were otherwise difficult to engage;
• connect students to themselves, to each other as well as to the world, and
• transform the learning environment itself. ^[SOURCE] 

The intrinsic benefits of the arts include:

• the pleasure and emotional stimulation of a personal, ‘felt’ response;
• captivation by an imaginative experience;
• an expanded capacity for empathy leading to the potential for creating social bonds and shared experiences of art;
• cognitive growth in being able to make sense of art, and
• the ability to find a voice to express communal meaning through art ^[SOURCE]