Guidance

Taking Part survey: data analysis tools

This is a guide to using the Taking Part survey online data analysis tools.

From:
Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Published
21 July 2016
Last updated
8 November 2016 — See all updates

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published a set of online data analysis tools. These tools are designed to make data from the Taking Part survey more accessible, allowing you to produce bespoke tables and explore the survey. These tools are in development, and are being published at this stage to allow users to feed into their development, so please let us have your feedback via the Taking Part survey inbox.

There are five tools, a summary of each is given below. At the moment tools 1, 2, 3 and 5 cover Taking Part survey data from 2014/15 and 2015/16, and tool 4 (Changes in individuals’ behaviour) uses data from 2012/13 to 2015/16. New and historic data will be added as part of the future development of the tools.

Overview

This dashboard provides an overview, showing which Taking Part survey questions are covered by each tool

Taking Part: Who participates? (Tool 1)

This tool allows you to look in more detail at who does what. For example, the proportion of adults who reported that they have done an activity, or hold a particular view. You can filter responses to look at specific groups of the population you are most interested in (e.g. women), and then get a further demographic breakdown of the results for that group, including: by ethnicity; by socio-economic group; by age; by income; and by education.

Example question

What proportion of women in England visited a museum or gallery in the 12 months prior to interview? How does this vary by income or level of education?

Or…

How satisfied were people with their last visit to the library and does this vary by age group?

Or…

How frequently do people engage with the arts and does this vary for those living in more or less deprived areas?

Taking Part: Most frequent responses (Tool 2)

This tool displays the most frequent responses for key questions in the survey. The top five answers are visualised in a table, and can be broken down by demographics (including gender ethnicity, socio-economic group, age, income and education). The frequency of all responses is also provided for information.

Example question:

What were the top five types of arts event attended by adults? How does this vary by age group?

Or…

What makes adults most proud of Britain? How does this vary between groups of different ethnicity?

 Taking Part: Regional analysis (Tool 3)

This tool provides estimates by region (former Government Office Regions in England) for headline questions from the survey, as well as details of how regions compare with the national average.

Example question

What proportion of adults in the North West had attended a classical music concert in the 12 months prior to interview? How does this compare with other regions?

Taking Part: Changes in individuals’ behaviour (Tool 4)

This tool uses the longitudinal survey data – it covers responses for individuals who have participated in the survey in each year from 2011/12 to 2015/16. It can be used to better understand how and why individuals’ engagement with culture and sport changes over time, and the specific reasons individuals give for doing more or less of activities.

Example question

What reasons did people give for visiting heritage sites more or less often in the last year?

Taking Part: Participation across sectors (Tool 5)

This tool allows comparison of participation across sectors. For example, showing how many of those individuals who went to a museum or gallery also visit a public library. You can see the proportions of adults who participated in both activities, neither of the activities, and only one of the activities. You can also breakdown your results by a range of demographic variables.

 Example questions

What proportion of adults who engaged with arts also engaged with heritage?

Or…

What proportion of women had engaged with neither arts nor sport, and how does this compare to men?

Or…

What proportion of adults who visited the library as a child use the library as an adult?

Sharing your analysis

You can share any analysis you carry out using these tools by using the ‘Share’ button at the bottom right of each page. You can share via Twitter or Facebook, send a link to the tool webpage, or even embed it in your own website.

To save your analysis offline, use the ‘Download’ button at the bottom right of each tool webpage. You are currently able to save the output of your analysis as a PDF or as an image. It is intended that as part of further developments it will be possible to download the record-level data that underpins your analysis, this feature should be made available in 2017.

Feedback

The Taking Part survey team would love to hear how you are using these tools, what you think of them and whether you have encountered any difficulties. All feedback will help us as we development these tools, so please contact us via the Taking Part survey inbox.

Find out more

Find out more about the Taking Part survey using the links below.

Accessing record-level Taking Part survey data

Record-level datasets for the Taking Part survey, from 2005/06 to present, can be accessed via the UK Data Service. Adult, child and longitudinal datasets are available. Please note that datasets are deposited for not-for-profit educational and research purposes only.

Published 21 July 2016
Last updated 8 November 2016 + show all updates

  1. Two additional Taking Part survey: data analysis tools are now available. These cover the changes in individuals' behaviour and participation across sectors.

  2. First published.

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