Making culture count: Why better data matters

As cultural producers, artists and organisations, you know the difference your work makes. But when funders, government or partners ask for evidence, it’s not always easy to capture and articulate the many far-reaching impacts and value of cultural activity.

Ticket sales, attendance figures or feedback surveys often focus on only formal activity or individual projects. What is not being captured is the full picture of everyday cultural engagement, the sustainability of our cultural organisations, the work of cultural practitioners and the impact on wellbeing, inclusion, local economies and the social fabric of our communities.  

At first glance, the need for robust data seems self-evident; fragmented and hard-to-compare data makes it harder to justify and evidence the social and economic impact of cultural activities in a compelling way. But this issue goes well beyond the risks of our collective impact being overlooked.

A truly transformative resource

Unpacking the problems surrounding cultural data is a vital stage in building a truly transformative resource that can play a critical role in creating a more equitable and regenerative cultural sector, securing long-term investment and recognition for culture as a key driver of social and economic vitality.

That’s why the Centre for Cultural Value – together with partners The Audience Agency, MyCake and Culture Commons launched a project last year working towards a blueprint for a UK National Cultural Data Observatory with the aim of building a shared, accessible cultural data resource which reflects the richness of cultural engagement and how it changes lives.

Bringing together quantitative and qualitative data, a national observatory would improve access to data and research, combine local evidence with national trends and have the potential to strengthen the case for culture and ensure it’s recognised as essential, not optional.

Why does it matter to cultural practice?

Good data helps answer tough questions. Recent work, such as the DCMS Taking Part Survey and the Centre’s Covid-19 research project, has shown how data can shed light on participation trends, inequalities and the resilience of cultural activity during crises. Taking Part data reveals long-standing participation gaps across socioeconomic groups, underscoring the need for targeted interventions.

Better data would show not only who takes part, but also how culture makes a difference and in what contexts. This kind of evidence doesn’t just sit in reports; it helps make the case for targeted funding, new partnerships and stronger community engagement.

Why does it matter to policymakers?

Sectors such as healthcare and education are supported by extensive data systems – such as NHS Digital and Department for Education statistics – making their contributions visible and measurable. Culture, by contrast, has historically lacked a unified data infrastructure.

Yet public bodies like Arts Council England (ACE), Creative Scotland and local authorities rely on strong data to prioritise investment. ACE’s Let’s Create strategy (2020–2030) explicitly commits to using evidence and research to inform its investment principles, ensuring funding to democratise access to arts and creative opportunities. Similarly, local governments working within networks such as the Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association use data to argue for the role of culture in place-based policy goals. 

For the cultural sector, that means policymaker access to good data isn’t abstract. It directly impacts whether funding applications succeed, whether councils continue to invest in venues, and whether culture is seen as central to placemaking and regeneration.

The problems of fragmented cultural data have been ongoing for years, and there have been attempts to surface and find solutions to these issues. The Cultural Data Alliance (2020) was established to address this gap recognising that, without shared standards and accessible data, culture risks being overlooked in multi-sectoral policymaking.

In addition, the call in 2022 from the Centre’s Making Data Work project showed that, in a competitive funding and policy environment, sectors that cannot clearly demonstrate their outcomes are at risk of marginalisation or underinvestment.

Why is this urgent?

Public and private resources are limited, and every investment is under greater scrutiny than ever before. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund and initiatives such as Levelling Up have sought to ensure public money is aligned with regional development priorities.  

When investment of public money is presented as a zero-sum game, culture must demonstrate its contribution to wider priorities, such as wellbeing, inclusion, regeneration and economic growth, to remain supported. Without clear evidence, culture risks being seen as ‘non-essential’, and we have all witnessed the impact when cultural provision shrinks.

The effects are felt quickly: rural communities lose libraries and theatres, young people face barriers to creative education and high streets lose the vitality cultural venues bring. The result is inequality in participation, less social cohesion, weakened creative economies and the loss of cultural diversity and heritage.

At the Centre, we are committed to working with practitioners to change this picture. Robust cultural data can make the benefits of culture visible and measurable, providing deeper insight into long-standing questions surrounding cultural value.

This means exploring how investment in culture contributes to areas including health, education and social cohesion, and tracing the long-term impacts of regeneration programmes at local and regional levels. It means asking whether cultural resources are fairly distributed and how patterns of participation reflect, or challenge, inequalities across age, class, ethnicity and geography. It means understanding which models of delivery foster sustainable, inclusive engagement, and how different organisations – from grassroots groups to large institutions – sustain cultural vitality. Most of all, it invites us to consider how these insights can shape a more equitable and resilient future for our cultural sector.

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