Key Data (Culture, State of the South West 2011)
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11.2.1 Headline data on the state of culture in South West England include:
> a 1% decrease of culture and sport employment, between 2006 and 2008, from 190,112 to 188,856, one of the lowest changes of all English regions outside of London and the South East (where employment increased);
> a 17% increase of VAT-registered culture and sport businesses, between 2007 and 2009 from 13,221 to 15,491, with the highest increase in creative businesses at 18%;
> an estimated 13,086 VAT-registered businesses in the creative sector, with employment of 137,848, and a 7% increase in GVA between 2005/6 and 2007/8
> private investment in the South West increased by 25% between 2007/08 and 2009/10, compared to an overall GB
decrease of 3%;
> an estimated 118,014,000 domestic and international visitors in 2008, generating a spend of £9.4 billion. Cultural heritage and the region’s tourist industry are inter-connected. In 2008 the total number of trips was 118 million (staying trips: 21.2 millions; day trips: 96.8 million) with a total visitor related spend of £9.4 billion (South West Tourism May 2010);
> an average weekly household spend on ‘recreation and culture’ of £63.60, compared to the UK average of £58.30;
> an adult participation rate of 23.2% in sport and active recreation in the South West, in at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity sport and active recreation on 3 or more days in a week (KPI 1), that is the highest rate of all English regions, and compares to the national average of 21.8%;
> an above average rate of volunteering in sports activities (KPI 2) of 5.3% (compared to the England rate of 4.5%), and an increased level of satisfaction with sports facilities from 69.6% (2008) to 71.9% (2010);
> a decrease in visits by adults to libraries, with rates falling from 47.8% in 2008 to 44% in 2010 (compared to an England average decrease from 48.5% to 45% in the same period);
> a decrease in visits by adults to museums and galleries between 2008 and 2010 from 52.9% to 51.4%, but with variations across local authorities - for example, no change in Bristol (61.4%) and Bath and North East Somerset (59.6%), an increase to 59.1% in Exeter, and a 4.3% decrease to 46.5% in Taunton Deane;
> an unchanged rate of engagement in the arts at 47.6% in the South West, compared to slight decreases in most other regions, and to an England average rate of 43.8%; a decrease in adult participation in the historic environment from a rate of 72.7% in 2008/09 to 69.8% in 2009/10, with even lower rates for Black and Minority Ethnic groups (from 67.9% to 60.5%), and for lower socio-economic groups (from 62.2% to 54.7%);
> a 3% fall in visits to English Heritage sites and fall of 2% to National Trust sites, between 2005/06 and 2007/08, although recent figures show admissions are again rising;
> an increase of admissions to cinemas in the South West from 3.9 million in 2008 to 4.3 million in 2009; with a regional ‘cinema deprivation’ rate of 6.1 screens per 100,000 of the population compared to the national average of 5.9 – albeit with significant variations across local authority areas;
> a total of 26,600 culture and sport physical assets counted across the South West;
> the highest proportion of England’s historic built assets, with 6,968 scheduled monuments (a third of England’s total),
88,676 listed buildings, 4 World Heritage Sites (21% of all those in England), and 23 (50%) of all protected historic marine wrecks in England;
> of 294 registered historic parks and gardens in the South West, a high number are found in Cornwall (36) and in Wiltshire (38).
