January 2020
Featured in this insight: Culture, heritage & leisure, International
Americans are visiting the library more than the cinema: According to a recent survey, Americans had more visits to their local library last year than they had visits to the cinema.
The poll of 1,000 US adults by Gallop found that the average number of library visits was 10.5 in 2019, compared to 5.3 visits to the cinema – the second most popular cultural activity undertaken by Americans in the last twelve months.
In third position was attending a live sporting event (4.7 times per year), followed by attending a live music or theatrical event (3.8) and visiting a national or historic park (3.7). The average number of times respondents visited a museum or went to a casino was was the same - visiting on average 2.5 times a year.
Going to an amusement or theme park (1.5) and visiting the zoo (0.9) were the activities Americans participated in the least during 2019.
Despite museum visits not being one of the most popular pastimes last year (ranking 6th), the number of visits was up from the data taken at the turn of the century by 0.7 visits a year.
The research found that women went to the library almost twice as much as men (13.4 vs 7.5 visits), while men are more likely to go to casinos, sporting events and national parks.
Younger people were the most likely to visit a library with 18–29 year-olds reporting an average of 15.5 visits per year, compared to just 6.8 visits by 50–64 year olds – the lowest attending age category.
It also found that overall, high-income households enjoyed more cultural activities than those with lower incomes.
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