Museums

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Science, Technology and Culture, Business Statistics
Christian Max Gustaf Törnfelt
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Museums 2025

The statistics have been compiled annually since 1984, but in 2016 they have undergone restructuring, which affects the number of the total number of guests in the museums. The state museums and the stat recognized museums continues unchanged.

Statistical presentation

The statistic is yearly and it shows the number of visitors inclusive children and young people under 18 years. Furthermore it gather information about yearly opening hours. From 2022, the statistic also show the number of volunteers, hours worked by volunteers and the total admission revenue (incl. annual passes), as well as the number of events outside the premises of the museum and online events (live-streamed) and participants in the two type of events. The museums have different categories and the statistic delivers a time series on the number of visitors since 1984.

Statistical processing

Annual electronic questionnaires answered by the individual museums. The statistics on museums is validated and corrected at the micro level i.e. the individual museums. If a museum has large fluctuations in the number of visitors contacted the museum for a clarification of the cause.

Relevance

The overviews of the individual museums visitor numbers are much in demand.

The users are primarily the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, The Danish Agency for Culture, organizations engaged in activities within in the field of museums and the news media.

Accuracy and reliability

Reporting to the museum statistics is voluntary, so the statistics are not fully comprehensive. Several of the smaller museums do not have the resources to report to the statistics. There are also museums that are not state aid that have asked to be exempted from receiving a form.

In 2016, schedules were sent out to 430 museum departments. In 2017, forms have been sent out to approx. 400 museum departments. In 2018, forms have been sent out to approx. 380 museum departments. In 2019 forms have been sent to approx. 370. The reason for sending fewer forms is due, for example, to the fact that museums close, exempt from the survey or have wanted to receive one report despite having several places. In 2020 forms have been sent to approx. 380 museum departments. In 2021 forms have been sent to approx. 460 museum departments. In 2022 forms have been sent to approx. 600 museum departments. The reason for the expanded population is due to a screening of potential museums based on the industry code in the Business Register. The reporters had to answer whether they had a collection that the public had access to. If they answered 'yes', they were included in the statistics. If they answered 'no', they were excluded. In 2023 forms have been sent to approx. 460 museum departments. In 2024 forms have been sent to approx. 450 museum departments. In 2025 forms have been sent to 455 museum departments.

Timeliness and punctuality

Statistical data are published approximately 5 months after the end of the reference period. Publications are released on time, as stated in the release calendar.

Comparability

It is possible to compare the survey for visitors to state museums and state recognized museums. For museums with other state subsidies and not state-subsidized museums, there may be a variation in e.g. the number of visits etc., which is due to composition effects, and it is not necessarily the same museums or the same number of museums that are included in the population or report to the statistics each year. For museums with other state subsidies and not subsidized museums, comparison with data before 2016 should also be taken with reservation as population formation changed in 2016. EGMUS The European Group on Museum Statistics publishes numbers of museums for most European countries. Many countries collect only information about state-sponsored museums.

Accessibility and clarity

These statistics are published yearly in a Danish press release, at the same time as the tables are updated in the StatBank. In the StatBank, these statistics can be found under the subject Museums. For further information, go to the subject page.

Information on Danes’ use of museums is available in the Culture Habits Survey tables in StatBank Denmark.