Statistics published on engagement of young people in culture, arts, heritage and sport

The Department for Communities (DfC) today released the publication ‘Engagement in culture, arts, heritage and leisure by young people in Northern Ireland’.

Careers and future intentions research

The report, which takes the findings from the 2022 Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey, measures the engagement rate of those aged 11 to 16 across a number of areas.

As with previous years, almost all young people (98%) had participated in sport in 2022, a slight decrease from 99% in 2019.

The report also highlighted that over nine in every ten young people had engaged with the arts in 2022, similar to 2019 figures of 90%.

However, the proportion of young people who used the public library service fell to 43%, compared to 48% in 2019. 

Similarly, visits to museum or science centres fell by 16 percentage points to 53% compared to 2019 (69%) and the number of young people volunteering also fell from 49% in 2019 to 44% in 2022.

The statistics also indicate that those young people entitled to free school meals have a lower engagement rate than those who are not, particularly for those who visited places of historic interest, attended arts events or visited a museum.

The report can be found here.  

Notes to editors: 

1. Media enquiries to DfC Press Office on email.
2. Follow us on twitter @CommunitiesNI
3. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

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