Official Statistics

Sponsored Museums Performance Indicators 2014/15

Published 19 November 2015

1. Chapter 1: Introduction

Released: 19 November 2015

Period covered: April 2014 – March 2015, referred to as 2014/15 throughout

Geographic coverage: DCMS Sponsored Museums (England)

Next release: November 2016

During 2014/15 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) sponsored 16 National Museums which provided free entry to their permanent collections. These museums were:

• British Museum
• Geffrye Museum
• Horniman Museum
• Imperial War Museum
• National Gallery
• Royal Museums Greenwich
• National Museums Liverpool
• Science Museum Group
• National Portrait Gallery
• Natural History Museum
• Royal Armouries
• Sir John Soane’s Museum
• Tate Galleries
• Tyne and Wear Museums
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• Wallace Collection

The data are collected by the museums through sample surveys, with the exception of the information on educational visits and total visits, which are based on actual counts.

Guidance notes explaining how the data should be collected are available here

2. Chapter 2: Visits to DCMS’ Sponsored Museums 2014/15

2.1 Total visits to sponsored museums:

Total visits to all sponsored museums increased by 4.1 per cent, from 48.7 million in 2013/14 to 50.7 million in 2014/15.

The most visited museum group was the Tate Gallery Group (comprising of four branches) with 7.9 million visits in 2014/15. The British Museum and The National Gallery were the next two most visited sponsored museums with 6.7 million and 6.5 million visits respectively (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Total visits by museum 2013/14 to 2014/15

2.2 Website visits:

In 2014/15 there were a total of 107.5 million unique visits to the websites of the DCMS sponsored museums. Due to changes in the software used to measure website visits by many of the museums at several points over time, these figures are not directly comparable between years.

2.3 Child visits:

There were 9.2 million visits by children aged 15 and under in 2014/15. This was a decrease of 2.4 per cent since 2013/14 (9.4 million). The Science Museum Group (comprising of five branches) had the greatest number of child visits at 1.7 million, followed by the Natural History Museum (comprising of two branches) with 1.4 million child visits (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The number of visits to sponsored museums by children aged 15 and under by museum visited, 2013/14 to 2014/15

2.4 Educational visits and onsite activities ^{[footnote 1]}.

In 2014/15, across all sponsored museums, there were 2.8 million instances where people under the age of 18 participated in on site events, a 24.4 per cent increase on 2013/14 (2.2 million). The Science Museum Group (comprising of five branches) had the greatest amount of instances with 792,000 in 2014/15, followed by the Natural History Museum (comprising of two branches) with 542,029 instances.

In 2014/15 there were 2.2 million facilitated and self-directed visits by people under 18 in formal education, a 2.1 per cent increase on 2013/14 (2.1 million). The Science Museum Group (comprising of five branches) had the most educational visits with 480,000 in 2014/15, followed by the British Museum with 271,055 facilitated and self-directed visits over the same period (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Number of facilitated and self-directed visits to the museum/gallery by children under 18 in formal education 2013/14 – 2014/15

Note: The number of facilitated and self-directed visits to the Sir John Soane’s Museum is too small compared with the other museums to appear on this figure, these were 1,200 in 2013/14 and 2,596 in 2014/15.

2.5 Overseas visits:

There were 23.8 million visits to sponsored museums in 2014/15 by overseas visitors, accounting for 47.0 per cent of all visits (Figure 4). This was an increase of 10.1 per cent since 2013/14 when 21.7 million visits were made by overseas visitors to the sponsored museums, accounting for 44.4 per cent of all visits in that year.

Figure 4: Percentage of overseas and UK visits to the 16 DCMS sponsored museums in 2013/14 and 2014/15.

The Royal Armouries (comprising of three branches ^{[footnote 2]}) had the largest proportion of overseas visitors in 2014/15, with 67.9 per cent of overseas visitors (Figure 5). Although Tyne and Wear Museum (comprising of 14 branches) had the lowest proportion of overseas visitors (4.7 per cent) it had seen a large increase compared with the 2013/14 (2.5 per cent).

Figure 5: Proportion of overseas and UK visits to each of the sponsored museums in 2014/15

3. Chapter 3: DCMS’ Sponsored Museums Self-generated Income 2014/15

3.1 DCMS’ Sponsored Museums Self-generated Income ^{[footnote 3]}

This chapter provides information on self-generated income of DCMS’ sponsored museums, broken down by admissions income, trading income and fundraising.

In 2014/15, the total self-generated income for DCMS sponsored museums was £410.2 million. The Tate Gallery Group (comprising of four branches) had the highest self-generated income of £179.8 million (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Admissions, trading income and fundraising for the sponsored museums, 2014/15

3.2 Admissions (Gross Income):

Admissions are the charges made to view some permanent collections or temporary exhibitions. In 2014/15 DCMS sponsored museums and galleries generated £42.6 million through admissions. This was an increase of 15.9 per cent on the 2013/14 figure of £36.7 million (Figure 7).

The Tate Gallery Group (comprising of four branches) generated the most revenue (£9.3 million), a 36.2 per cent increase on 2013/14 (£6.9million). The National Gallery had the largest percentage increase in revenue from admissions between 2013/14 and 2014/15, increasing by 200.0 per cent from £1.4 million in 2013/14 to £4.2 million in 2014/15 ^{[footnote 4]}

Figure 7: Admissions income for the sponsored museums 2013/14 to 2014/15

3.3 Trading Income (Net Profit):

The trading income is the total income raised through activities which involve selling a product or service to a customer (e.g. retail sales, publications, reproductions, royalties, corporate hire, catering, location hire (TV and films), licensing, image licensing, consultancy, services, learning and access income). In 2014/15 a total of £77.5 million was generated across the DCMS sponsored museums, an increase of 8.2 per cent on the 2013/14 figure of £71.6 million (Figure 8).

The Tate Gallery Group (comprising of four branches) generated the most trading income in 2014/15 (£30.6 million), an 18.2 per cent increase on 2013/14 (£25.9 million). The Imperial War Museums (comprising of five branches) had the largest increase in trading income, increasing by 102.5 per cent from £2.8 million in 2013/14 to £5.7 million in 2014/15.

Figure 8: Trading income for the sponsored museums 2013/14 to 2014/15 ^{[footnote 6]}

3.4 Fundraising (Charitable Giving):

Charitable giving is defined as any money or gift received from an individual, charity or private company, which is from one of the following: bequests, legacies, donations and capital grants from individuals, charities, foundations, trusts and private companies, as well as income raised through sponsorship and income from membership schemes. It does not include any money received from a publicly funded organisation, central government grants, investment income or lottery grant funding. In 2014/15 a total of £290.2 million was received by the sponsored museums and galleries. This was an increase of 20.6 per cent on the 2013/14 figure of £240.6 ^{[footnote 7]} million (Figure 9). The Tate Gallery Group (comprising of four branches) generated the most revenue from fundraising in 2014/15 (£139.9 million), a 47 per cent increase on 2013/14 (£95.1 million).

Figure 9: Fundraising for the sponsored museums 2013/14 to 2014/15

4. Chapter 4: DCMS’ Sponsored Museums Visitor Satisfaction 2014/15

4.1 Proportion of visitors who would recommend a visit:

The proportion of visitors who would recommend a visit is defined as those who answered ‘How likely are you to recommend a visit to your friends or family’ with ‘definitely will’ or ‘probably will’.

In 2014/15, across all 16 DCMS sponsored museums and galleries 96.4 per cent of adults said they would recommend a visit to their friends or family. This is lower than in 2013/14, when the figure was 97.8 per cent. The Royal Armouries (comprising of three branches) had the highest proportion of recommendations, with 100 per cent of visitors stating that they would recommend a visit to their friends or family (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Proportion of visitors who would recommend a visit, 2013/14 to 2014/15

5. Chapter 5: DCMS’ Sponsored Museums Regional Engagement

5.1 Number of UK loan venues:

A loan venue is defined as any approved borrowing institution, organisation, exhibition facility, or individual researcher who have been loaned an item from one of the DCMS sponsored museums and galleries.

In 2014/15, there were 1,629 UK loan venues. This is lower than in 2013/14, when there were 1,657 loan venues. The Victoria and Albert Museum (comprising of four branches) had the highest number of loan venues, lending pieces to 252 venues in the United Kingdom (Figure 11).

Figure 11: The number of UK loan venues, 2013/14 to 2014/15 ^{[footnote 8]}

6. Annex A: Background Note

1. Sponsored Museums: Performance Indicators is an Official Statistic and has been produced to the standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. For more information, see http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/code-of-practice-for-official-statistics.pdf.

2. Sponsored Museums Performance Indicator publications previously included data on adult visits by NS-SEC group, ethnicity and whether visitors considered themselves to have a long term illness, disability or infirmity. Previous publications also included data on: The number of instances of children participating in outreach activities outside the gallery; the number of instances of adults aged 16 and over participating in organised activities at the museum/gallery; the number of instances of adults aged 16 and over participating in outreach activities outside the museum/gallery. Following consultation with the sponsored Museums and Galleries, the data outlined above were no longer collected from 2012/13 onwards to reduce the burden of data collection on the Museums and Galleries. If you have a continued user need for these data, please contact enquiries@culture.gov.uk.

3. This report has been produced by Alex Hanson and Becky Woods.

4. The responsible statistician for this release is Becky Woods. For enquiries on this release, please contact Becky 0207 211 6134 or evidence@culture.gov.uk.

5. Next Release: The next release is scheduled for November 2016.

6. For general enquiries telephone: 0207 211 6134 Department for Culture Media and Sport 100 Parliament Street London SW1A 2BQ enquiries@culture.gov.uk

1. The Natural History Museum figures related to visitors under 16 from 2008/09 to 2014/15, the Geffrye Museum figures related to visitors under 16 between 2009/10-2014/15 and the National Portrait Gallery figures related to visitors under 18 from 2008/09 to until 2013/14. The Horniman Museums figures related to visitors under 16 from 2012/13 to 2014/15. ↩

2. Including the White Tower at the Tower of London ↩

3. Further information on DCMS’ sponsored museums self-generated income (including Grant in aid) can be found in the Charitable Giving Indicators 2014/15 publication, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/charitable-giving-indicators-201415 ↩

4. This may be due to increased visitors due to the Rembrandt exhibition ↩

5. The British Museum figures for 2013/14 includes profit from the British Museum Company. ↩

6. This figure has been revised from the previous figure of £252.4 million due to an error in the 2013/14 publication for the Tate Gallery Group. This figure has been amended (from £106,903 to £95,123). The new total for 2013/14 of £240.6 million reflects this change. ↩

7. The Wallace Collection cannot loan items under the Bequest. ↩