Welsh National Opera (WNO) contributes more than £22m to the country annually, according to a new study. WNO currently receives £4.5m in annual revenue funding from the Arts Council of Wales (ACW), and employs 250 permanent staff, as well as freelance artists and casual staff. This funding allows it to leverage additional income from a range of sources, including £7m of grant funding from Arts Council England (ACE) and £4.5m from ticket sales and fundraising. The study also shows the breadth of the company’s reach: in 2008/09, nearly one fifth of the 45,000 people who saw WNO at the Wales Millennium Centre came from outside Wales. The research used a methodology originally commissioned by ACE with the support of ACW and the Scottish Arts Council, and was carried out by Professor Dominic Shellard, recently appointed as Vice Chancellor of De Montfort University.