First results from a new survey of involvement in sport and culture show that 94 per cent of adults living in England attended or participated in at least one activity during the past year. 

This includes visits to heritage sites, museums and galleries, libraries, archives and arts events, and participation in the arts or active sport.

The survey is collecting results from nearly 30,000 people over the next year on levels of participation and attendance in and across activities within the Department's remit.  Other key findings include:

• Over half (53 per cent) of all adults participated in a 'moderate intensity level' sport during the four weeks prior to the survey,
• Two-thirds (67 per cent) of all adults lived in a household where the main television was connected to a digital system, and
• Around a tenth (7 per cent) of all adults volunteered in a culture or sport sector during the past year.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said:

"These findings provide invaluable information about the number of people who do – and, just as importantly don't – take part in culture and sport in England.  Over time we will gain a solid fact base that will help ensure public investment in sport and culture is going to the right places.

"Initial results look very good indeed, with the headline figure of 94 per cent engaging in sporting and cultural activities, giving the lie to the couch potato stereotype so often trotted out about people today."

The Taking Part survey also includes provisional results on taking up sporting and cultural opportunities by priority groups, such as people with disabilities, those from black and minority ethnic communities, and those in lower socio economic groups.

Tessa Jowell added:

"The Government wants to see more people from priority groups getting something out of cultural and sporting activities.  For my Department it is a top priority. 

"We want to widen the range of participants enjoying our sectors' opportunities rather than having the same people participating in cultural and sporting activities time and time again.  We can use this evidence to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of people enjoying culture, sport and the arts.  Today's figures will, in time, provide the evidence-based rock on which we can build future policy."

Notes to Editors

Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport is jointly funded by the DCMS and its sponsored bodies.