Skip to content

Comparability

Contact info

Research, Technology and Culture
Christian Törnfelt
+45 3917 3447

lua@dst.dk

Get as PDF

Cultural Habits Survey

The statistics have been compiled since 1964. However, the present survey is only to a limited extent comparable to previous releases. This is due partly to societal and technological changes and partly to changes in user needs that have led to a major revision of the questionnaire. The statistics questionnaire is prepared according to common UN guidelines and is therefore partly comparable with statistics from other countries, including the Nordic countries and other EU countries.

Comparability - geographical

The statistics questionnaire is prepared according to common UN guidelines and is therefore partly comparable with statistics from other countries. Selected variables from the study are comparable to Eurostat's releases on Cultural Statistics. Cultural statistics are also made in the other Nordic countries. See e.g. publications at Kulturanalys Norden.

Comparability over time

Social and technological changes have led to an ongoing revision of the questionnaire since the first survey in 1964. In addition, there are significant methodological changes, for example changing the reference period from 12 to 3 months. There has been a change from a concept of culture, where the focus was on the traditional elite cultural activities such as opera, ballet and concerts, to a much broader concept. The new, broader cultural concept covers everything from traditional cultural activities to digital games, exercise and citizens' active contributions in associations. The development of the cultural concept means that a larger proportion of the population are active cultural consumers and that cultural use by children, young people and older people in particular has increased.

The timeliness of the questionnaire is an important priority, which on the other hand reduces the possibility of comparisons. There are a number of questions, for example walks in the forest, which have been discontinued since the first measurement (1964). On the other hand, new issues have been included to reflect new consumption. Examples of new issues include digital games and streaming or podcasts. In the period 2018-2020, minor adjustments are expected in the questionnaire to ensure a more optimal coverage of the target population's cultural consumption and user needs.

All the responses collected just before the corona crisis and before the shutdown in mid-March 2020, COVID19 has no impact on comparability over time. This will only be relevant for Q2 2020, which also covers the decommissioning period, during which the cultural institutions have been closed for several months.

Compared to previous studies, the age group changes the results. The reason for the change is a more evenly distributed scale, where the first group changes from 16-19 years to 16-24 years. In addition, the new age division enables comparability with other EU countries. Finally, the top age group over the age of 65 is divided into two groups, 65-74 years and over 75, in order to be able to draw a more nuanced picture of senior citizens' cultural activities.

Coherence - cross domain

Selected indicators can be compared with information from other statistics, including the media development prepared by Danish Public Radio (DR), and a number of studies carried out by Statistics Denmark: e.g. "IT use in the population" or "Electronics in the home". Finally, it is possible to compare selected indicators with a number of smaller statistics in the field of culture, calculated by Statistics Denmark. This can be, for example, library statistics, performing arts or museums.

Coherence - internal

Not relevant for these statistics.