Cultural policy in Sweden is not simply a policy on the arts. Its guiding principles relate not only to literature and libraries, the performing arts, museums and exhibitions, painting, sculpture and design, but also to the mass media, popular education and the activities of voluntary organizations.
Swedish cultural policy assumed its present shape in the 1970s. In a well developed welfare state, the public sector seeks to offer the individual citizen not only financial security and social welfare, but also a cultural environment of high quality. The cultural policy objectives adopted by Parliament (Riksdag) in 1974 speak of freedom of expression, decentralization, and the universal right to culture regardless of place of residence and social background. At present a parliamentary commission is engaged among other things on a review of the 1974 cultural policy, the intention being for Parliament in 1996 to adapt cultural policy to changed conditions.
Public bodies do not dominate the cultural scene, however. The majority of cultural events and products are supplied on the private market and paid for by private individuals. Books and records, films and videos, newspapers and magazines are produced, sold and distributed by private firms. Cable television is part of the private media market.
The public sector's role is to safeguard the diversity and quality of cultural life. Central government can support the market where the latter is unable to sustain sufficient breadth of output and distribution. Such support may take the form, for example, of subsidies for newspapers, book publishing and selling, the publication, marketing and distribution of cultural periodicals, and the production and distribution of films and sound recordings.
Cultural institutions and independent groups
Central government, the county councils and the
municipalities have the common aim of offering members of the
public access to professional art. One of the main thrusts of
their efforts has been to build up and strengthen the
country's network of cultural institutions, i.e. libraries,
museums and publicly run professional theatres and
orchestras.
Libraries
There are 288 municipalities in Sweden, enjoying far-reaching
powers of self-government. Over half of them have fewer than
20,000 inhabitants. In every municipality there are public
libraries staffed by professional librarians. Most of them
are of a high standard, with modern buildings, mobile library
facilities and sizeable collections of books. Books are lent
free of charge.
Apart from providing a book-lending service, libraries are used as cultural centres, with exhibitions, concerts, theatre performances, lectures, debates and so on. Only just over half the people who go to libraries do so to borrow books. The others go there to read newspapers or magazines, study, make enquiries, or attend any of the activities listed above.
To reach as many people as possible, many municipal authorities have mobile libraries which tour remote districts to enable people living a long way from a library to borrow books. People who are ill or disabled can have books sent to them.
The difference in standard between individual municipalities, however, can be considerable. Both resources and per capita lending figures vary from one municipality to another. Lending rates vary from 4 to 16 books per inhabitant per year.
Museums
There are roughly 300 museums and local heritage centres in
the country. Around 45 museums are run by the state. Most of
them are national museums housing art, cultural history,
archaeological or natural history collections. There are 26
county museums, whose responsibilities include preservation
of the regional cultural heritage. In addition there are some
50 major municipal museums and art galleries. Travelling
exhibitions are produced and arranged by the state-run
Travelling Exhibitions Service (Riksutställningar). Together
these museums employ a substantial staff of
university-trained archaeologists, art historians, scientists
and others.
The remainder are local heritage or folk museums, or small specialized museums associated with industries, schools, hospitals, etc. As a rule, they are run by small groups of enthusiasts.
The job of museums is to collect, care for, preserve and exhibit. Community-oriented activities are, however, attracting increasing interest. Guided tours, lectures, schools projects, travelling exhibitions, as well as cultural and natural history field trips are frequently arranged.
Theatre and dance
There are 29 institutional (i.e. publicly run and funded)
theatres in Sweden. These include the Royal Opera and the
Royal Dramatic Theatre, both in Stockholm. The Swedish
National Theatre Centre (Svenska Riksteatern) is a
state-funded theatrical institution that produces touring
performances for local theatre societies throughout the
country. The others are municipal and county theatres. Size
and artistic objectives vary. The biggest theatre has a staff
of approximately 700, while the smallest employ around 15
people.
In addition to the Royal Opera and Folkoperan in Stockholm, there are music theatres in Göteborg (Gothenburg), Malmö, Karlstad and Umeå. Ballet companies operate in association with the theatres in the first three of these cities as well as in Norrköping/Linköping.
There are about a hundred independent professional theatre and dance groups in Sweden, most of them in the major cities. In practice, many function as small theatrical institutions, while others mainly work out in the community with theatre for children and young people. Children's theatre has long been artistically one of the most vigorous elements in independent group theatre. At international level, too, it has attracted a great deal of interest.
In all, the institutional theatres and independent groups stage some 20,000 performances annually, before a total audience of roughly 3 million.
Music
There are 11 professional symphony orchestras and major
chamber orchestras in Sweden. In addition, there are some 25
smaller musical institutions_county music foundations_with
varying emphases and types of instrument: sinfoniettas, small
chamber ensembles, large brass bands and so on.
The symphony orchestras are based in the major cities, but every county has at least one professional musical institution. Together they employ over 1,200 professional musicians. These bodies are financed by central government, the county councils and the municipalities. In all they put on some 18,000 concerts and other musical events every year, a large proportion being concerts and educational activities in schools and pre-schools.
In addition, the Swedish National Concert Institute (Svenska Rikskonserter) and the county music foundations are responsible for creating work for freelance musicians and independent groups and for developing the country's musical life.
There are several hundred fully or semi-professional music groups playing chamber music, jazz, rock or folk music. They receive only limited public funding, and are thus highly dependent on ticket sales and other sources of income. Independent music groups put on an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 concerts a year.
Support for visual art, literature, films and sound recordings
Breadth and quality of artistic achievement are also sought
outside the official institutions. The state therefore
supports the production of literature, films and sound
recordings. Both central and local government commission
artists to produce works to enhance public buildings. They
often do so under the "one-percent rule", introduced in the
1930s, which provides that one percent of the cost of a
public building is to be spent on artistic embellishment. As
a result, excellent examples of artistic environmental design
are to be found in hospitals, town halls and public places.
State book publishing subsidies are designed to ensure the publication of commercially less viable quality literature. Such subsidies are not paid until the book concerned has appeared. Some 4,000 books (newly issued general-interest works) are published in Sweden annually, of which around 800 are subsidized by the state. Central government also provides some support for book distribution and retailing. In 1994/95, total funding amounts to some SEK 50 million.
Support for films is financed out of levies paid by cinema owners and firms hiring video recordings to the public. The money goes towards the production of Swedish films and helps promote the distribution and public showing of quality films. In 1993/94, film support totalled around SEK 127 million.
Since 1982 there has been a central government scheme to support production of records and audio cassettes, aimed at ensuring the release of high quality Swedish music. In 1993/94 a total of SEK 16 million was paid out.
Creative and performing arts
There are approximately 15,000 creative and performing
artists in Sweden. Add to these journalists, architects,
librarians, radio and television producers and professional
museum staff, and the number of people working in the
cultural sphere increases by 20,000. Even with this broad
definition, "cultural workers" represent barely 1% of the
gainfully employed.
Musicians, actors and actresses, dancers and directors are commonly employed by permanent ensembles, e.g. a municipal theatre or symphony orchestra. But many work on a freelance basis. Writers, composers and visual artists (painters, sculptors, etc.) are generally self-employed. The majority of cultural workers have more than one source of income, each of which may be fairly modest. Considerable inventiveness is needed to be able to make a living as a freelance in the cultural sphere.
Despite the considerable support given to cultural institutions, to the artistic endeavours of independent groups, to book publishing and film production, and in the form of commissions for visual artists, there is also a need for direct support for individuals working in the arts. This need is linked with the fact that continuous development and renewal are imperative for artists. The basic approach here has been to create the resources needed to make this possible by paying artists for public use of their work. The idea is for artists themselves to have a decisive say on how such funds are to be distributed.
The state supports creative and performing artists by allocating money to the Swedish Authors' Fund (Sveriges författarfond), the Arts' Grants Committee (Konstnärsnämnden), and by paying exhibition fees to artists, income guarantees, etc. As regards music, copyright owners' collecting societies charge fees for all works that are played on the radio, at concerts, in hospitals and schools, and so on. Authors receive payments for library use of their books, visual artists are paid when their works are shown in exhibitions in public buildings, and awards are made in the form of income guarantees for certain artists, writers, composers and others of great importance to Swedish cultural life. County and municipal councils award cultural scholarships worth smaller amounts.
Basic training for artists is provided in a wide variety of forms, e.g. study circles, municipal music and art schools, folk high schools and upper secondary schools offering aesthetic/practical courses.
Responsibility for higher education in the arts rests mainly with central government. In the sphere of visual art and design, higher education is provided at the College of Fine Arts in Stockholm, the Valand School of Art in Göteborg, and the Colleges of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm and Göteborg. Musical training is given at the Colleges of Music in Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö.
Training in the dramatic arts is available at three Colleges of Acting, in Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö, and at the National Colleges of Opera and Dance in Stockholm. The College of Film, Television, Radio and Theatre in Stockholm offers professional training in these various media. Each year just over 700 students complete higher education in the arts.
Popular education and voluntary organizations
Popular education, i.e. adult education of a more general
nature, is a well established tradition in Sweden, and the
country has a wide network of voluntary organizations. Most
Swedes are members of more than one club, society or
association. In the cultural sphere, too, such organizations
provide a dynamic range of activities. Eleven adult education
associations organize courses and study circles attracting
around 2.7 million participants a year. Circles on aesthetic
subjects (art, arts and crafts, music, drama, etc.) represent
some 40% of their activities. Together with their supporting
organizations, adult education associations also put on over
90,000 cultural events, concerts, theatre performances,
lectures, exhibitions, etc. every year, attended by over 10
million people.
Amateur activities are very widespread in the cultural sphere. There are at least 6,000 choirs with some 500,000 members. More than 40,000 musicians are involved in 500 amateur symphony orchestras and brass bands. In addition, there are thousands of rock, jazz and folk groups. Over 200 amateur theatre groups exist. And on top of all this are all the individuals who paint, make pottery, practise photography and play instruments on their own.
Over 400,000 pupils attend optional music lessons at school, organized by municipal music schools. There they learn to play a wide range of instruments and are encouraged to play in ensembles.
There are also a large number of organizations for audiences. Some 225 theatre societies arrange performances of productions staged by the Swedish National Theatre Centre, regional theatres and independent groups. There are around 1,800 art societies with a total membership of around 630,000 people. Each year they arrange some 7,000 exhibitions and buy works of art worth SEK 148 million for their members.
Local heritage societies look after a large number of small museums and heritage centres, housed in buildings of historic and architectural interest. They are also involved in environmental issues and the preservation of historic monuments. There are some 500 such organizations, with a membership of over 500,000.
Nearly a quarter of public funding for cultural purposes goes to popular education and the activities of cultural organizations. Nevertheless, the key resource here is the unpaid work of members themselves.
The media
In the media sector there are tendencies towards both a more
international flavour and a greater local emphasis. Satellite
broadcasting is resulting in a sharply rising inflow of
Anglo-American entertainment, in particular, and there is a
strong international element in the national broadcasting
media.
Radio and television in Sweden have undergone a transformation process during the past few years. The previous publicly-regulated radio and TV monopoly has been replaced by another structure.
Starting in the mid-1920s, radio and later TV broadcasts were provided by a monopoly corporation, committed to operating on a public-service basis. Its broadcasts have been financed from licence fees paid by the public. No commercial advertising has been allowed on its broadcasts. Today, this former broadcasting corporation is organized in three autonomous companies, Sveriges Radio, the Swedish Television Company and the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (both radio and television). They broadcast on four radio channels, one of which broadcasts regionally in 25 areas of Sweden, and two TV channels.
In the 1980s, cable television networks began to be established. Today, these networks cover some 2.2 million households, i.e. 65% of Swedish households. Cable is used primarily to distribute satellite programmes. Local broadcasts are still only distributed on a modest scale.
A commercial terrestrial channel with nation-wide coverage, TV 4, has been broadcasting since 1991. Private commercial cable transmissions have also been allowed since 1992. Commercial local radio was introduced in 1993 and advertiser- financed stations started in about 60 localities. Since 1978, there have also been community ("neighbourhood") radio stations, broadcast by local voluntary organizations. By the end of 1993 there were about 160 such stations and around 1,500 participating local organizations.
The operations of broadcasting companies are regulated by law and by agreements with the Government, which establish guidelines for programming. In the case of the three public- service companies, the Swedish state also regulates the basic features of their organizational and financial structures. Within these limits, the programming companies operate independently. The state has no influence over individual programmes.
Home video recorders came on the market in the early 1980s. By 1993 they had been acquired by 69% of households. They are used mainly for deferred viewing. Rentals of video recordings, which rose for most of the 1980s, began to decline during the closing years of the decade, due to competition from television. Measures have been taken to increase the supply of quality video films.
Sweden has one of the world's highest per capita consumption of newspapers. Over 90% of the adult population read at least one daily paper. The periodical press comprises a wide spectrum of over 10,000 different publications. Only a few hundred of these are in wide circulation. The rest are staff magazines, association newsletters and other internal newssheets.
The state provides grants for newspapers and cultural periodicals, with the aim of preserving and if possible increasing media diversity. In 1994/95, support for newspapers will amount to SEK 480 million. Grants are provided to low-coverage newpapers for production and to newspapers that coordinate their distribution with one or several other newspapers. Funds available for cultural periodicals are intended to support production, marketing and distribution, with a view to increasing numbers of readers and subscriptions. In 1994/95, a total of SEK 19 million worth of support will be provided.
The culture industry
A very large volume of cultural products and services is
supplied on the commercial market in Sweden. Most radio and
television programmes are not commercially financed, but to a
large extent they are nevertheless channels for a commercial
popular culture, and together they constitute a basis for the
culture industry.
The 1,100 cinemas in the country have annual attendance figures of around 16 million (i.e. two attendances per inhabitant). American films account for 75% of all attendances. Audiences are mostly young. Videos have overtaken cinemas as a medium for feature films; rented films are viewed on home videos by an estimated annual audience of 60-80 million.
A central aim of film policy is to support the production and distribution of Swedish films, and responsibility for giving effect to it rests with the Swedish Film Institute. In Sweden, as in many other countries, the big international companies' productions tend to dominate the market. The principal sources of the Institute's funds is a 10% levy on cinema tickets (sold in cinemas with six or more showings a week); a fee charged on video films rented or sold; annual payments by a commercial TV company and the public-service TV companies secured by an agreement between them and the Institute; and certain grants of central-government funds.
The choice of films available on video corresponds broadly to the range shown at cinemas, but with an even greater preponderance of American productions. In around ten of the biggest cities, there is a choice of at least ten different cinema films every evening. Video shops with a couple of hundred titles can now be found even in places with just some thousand inhabitants. In large cities, the biggest video rental outlets stock a couple of thousand titles.
Swedes buy just over 25 million records and audio cassettes a year. In addition, some 10 million blank cassettes are sold. Pop, rock and light music account for 80% of sales. The some 20 cities and towns in Sweden with populations of more than 40,000 generally have well-stocked record shops. Elsewhere, choice is limited to small displays of the most popular records.
About 11,000 book titles are published in Sweden every year, including about 3,300 newly issued general-interest works. Around SEK 5,400 million worth of books (incl. VAT 25%) are sold annually, with bookshops accounting for 35-40%, book clubs for just under 30%, and department stores, kiosks, etc. for the remainder. There are full-range bookshops in 75% of the municipalities.
Some 200 private galleries arrange regular exhibitions of quality art, over half of them in the three main cities.
The general public and cultural habits
Media activities
On a normal day in 1992, the Swedes devoted an average of
some 5 hours and 45 minutes to media. Television and radio
account for 70% of this time. The amount of time set aside
for media rose steeply until about 1987 but since then has
reverted to the 1980 level. It seems as though media use has
now reached a saturation point.
The average Swede spends about two hours a day watching television. Up until 1990, the heavy expansion of TV choice through the advent of satellite and cable transmissions had not led to any appreciable increase in viewing times. An increase has been observed, though, in more recent years. Pensioners are definitely the biggest TV consumers, and they too have increased their viewing most. Video use peaked in 1987 but has declined sharply since. Pre-school children are the biggest video consumers, but daily video watching is relatively high up to the age of 20, declining rapidly thereafter.
Radio listening too amounts to roughly two hours per person on an average day. This is often secondary to some other activity, but need not imply inattentive listening. Children today listen to radio a lot less than adults. About 60% of the population tune in to Sveriges Radio's nationwide channels, about 20% to its local stations and about 5% to an independent community radio station on an average day.
About 45% of the population use recordings on an average day: 35% listen to taped music and 23% to records. Between 1970 and 1985, the total amount of time spent listening to records and tapes rose from about 10 minutes to 45 minutes on average per person daily, since when it has dropped significantly: the figure for 1992 was about 35 minutes.
Reading occupies least time compared with watching and listening. The average time spent reading books is about 20 minutes per person daily, but nearly one in every three book- readers spends more than an hour reading. More than half the population have read books in an average week, while just under 20% have not read a book at all in the past year. In spite of heavy media competition, daily book reading was fairly steady in the 1980s and has continued that way so far in the 1990s. The typical book-reader is a highly educated younger woman or perhaps rather the daughter of the highly educated family. Another interesting fact is that book reading is most widespread in cities and least common in the countryside.
Other media-borne culture also presents considerable regional differences. Not only books but recordings, art programmes and certain music programmes on radio and television are also more extensively used by people in the Stockholm region than the rest of the Swedish population.
Visiting activities
Since 1983, the percentage of annual visitors above all to
concerts has increased, but there has also been a slight
increase in the percentages going to the theatre and/or
opera. The numbers visiting art exhibitions/museums have been
increasing since 1988. On the other hand, the percentages
taking part in courses and/or study circles have fallen
slightly since 1983. Otherwise the visitor percentages have
not changed appreciably during the past ten-year period.
Several visiting activities are dominated by children and/or young persons, e.g. going to the library, museums (incl. school children's parents), music events etc. and the cinema. Persons of about middle age are over-represented among participants in courses and/or study circles. Visits to club meetings are dominated by men over middle age. Theatre and/or opera-going is "ageless" on the whole, except for children and pensioners. Visits to art exhibitions are also just about equally common in all age groups between 25 and 65.
Where most visiting activities are concerned, graduates are heavily over-represented among the adult population_now as previously_while there is an equally conspicuous under- representation of the educationally disadvantaged. Club meetings are an exception to the rule: these are correlated with education to a limited extent only. At the same time, the educational dependence of library visits and participation in courses and/or study circles has declined somewhat since 1983, while the education gaps have grown wider since 1988 for visits to art museums but not for visits to art exhibitions outside the museums.
Theatre and/or opera-going, visits to museums and art exhibitions and cinema-going are city phenomena to a greater extent than other activities. The same can not be said of music events, and visits to libraries are unaffected on the whole by a residential locality (though the inhabitants of Greater Stockholm are not quite as active in this respect as others). The rural population makes more extensive use of clubs and associations than the average national population.
Personal activities
The percentage involved in folk dancing has risen appreciably
since 1988, while the percentage going in for film-making
and/or photography has increased slightly since 1983. The
percentage practising textile crafts (knitting, sewing and/or
weaving) in an average month, on the other hand, has declined
since 1983. Other activities have changed hardly at all over
the past ten-year period in terms of the percentage of
practitioners in an average month.
Many activities are to a great extent dominated by girls of school age and/or young women students, viz playing musical instruments, choral singing, ballet, writing poetry and diaries, painting and drawing. Dancing is also a typical young people's activity but can be quite popular in all age groups from 10 to 65. Photography and/or film-making is commonest among parents of very young children. Textile crafts are dominated by women over middle age but are losing ground among children and young people. Folk dancing is more or less equally common in all age groups, as are arts and crafts (except among children and young persons).
As regards amateur cultural activities, music-making and painting and/or drawing are clearly education-dependent, while this is not nearly so much the case, for example, with amateur theatricals, choral singing, ballroom dancing, folk dancing, arts and crafts and photography and/or film-making. Choral singing and theatrical activity used to be more dependent on educational background than they are today.
Painting/drawing and ballet dancing, for example, are typical city activities. Ballroom dancing is dominated by the residents of regional centres and other large urban communities outside the city regions, while textile crafts occur mainly in rural regions. Instrumental and vocal music- making, amateur theatricals, folk dance and arts and crafts are on the whole unaffected by whether people live in a city or in the country.
Financial resources
Cultural spending in 1992 by the State, county councils and
municipalities totalled roughly MSEK 12,600. Household
expenditure on culture that same year can be estimated at
about MSEK 12,800, though this does not include household
expenditure on home electronics and newspapers. Taking the
national economy as a whole, then, cultural spending in 1992
came to about MSEK 25,300. Public and private cultural
spending, in other words, are roughly equal.
State cultural expenditure for the 1992/93 fiscal year totalled MSEK 5,600. This figure also includes State support to popular education and meeting rooms, but it does not include State press subsidies. Municipal cultural spending (schools of music included) totalled MSEK 6,000 in 1992, while county council cultural spending that year came to MSEK 1,000.
Three-year budgets have been introduced in Swedish state agencies. The first three-year budget, for the period between July 1993 and June 1996, was adopted by Parliament in 1993.
The statistical definition of "cultural spending" employed here has been chosen to facilitate comparisons between State, county councils, municipalities and households. Thus municipalities account for the greater part of public cultural spending, about 48%, as against 44% for the State and 8% for the county councils.
Debate on cultural policy
Public debate on cultural policy in Sweden has largely
centred on the scope for carrying out the cultural policy
that took shape at the beginning of the 1970s. Attention has
been drawn to remaining shortcomings in the development of
regional cultural institutions, and to slow progress in
changing cultural habits.
Since the 1980s, it has proved increasingly difficult to bring about further improvements in the general prosperity of the population. And to some extent the background of cultural debate has also changed. Some of the themes of this discussion merit attention and will be described here with reference to a selection of typical arguments and views:
An active cultural life is a necessary asset for a municipality or region wishing to improve its employment and development potential. The importance of culture in attracting high technology companies and a qualified workforce is emphasized.
Alternatives are needed in the form of education about the media, training in using the media, local programme production and active public information efforts. Media developments are an argument for pursuing traditional cultural policy with greater vigour. A Commission was appointed in the autumn of 1994 to study media questions in a cultural policy perspective.
Culture must be given a stronger position in pre-schools and schools. Parents must realize that there is a need for cultural self-defence as a counterbalance to commercial culture.
Responsibility for cultural policy
Political bodies at the national, local and regional levels
have a shared responsibility for implementing and developing
cultural policy. Political responsibility encompasses
decisions on goals, guidelines and financial resources.
Cultural institutions are responsible for artistic content.
Respect for artistic freedom is a fundamental principle.
The goals and direction of state cultural policy are determined by the Government and Parliament. The National Council for Cultural Affairs (Statens kulturråd) is a state agency responsible for implementing this policy. The Central Board of National Antiquities and the National Historical Museums (Riksantikvarieämbetet och statens historiska museer) have official responsibility for the preservation of the country's cultural and architectural heritage. The National Archives (Riksarkivet) are responsible for preserving public records and other archive materials. The Swedish Film Institute (Filminstitutet) is an independent foundation, but is responsible for aspects of state cultural policy relating to films. Municipal councils have independent responsibility for local cultural policy. Both the nature and the aspirations of their policies vary.
County councils, which also have committees specifically responsible for cultural matters, have played a part in establishing county theatres, county museums and county music institutions throughout the country. These institutions are run in co-operation with municipal authorities. Cultural policy in Sweden evolves in response to continuous interaction between national, local and regional interests. In the 1970s, the state and county councils adopted cultural policies backed by the principle that all should have equal access to culture. During the 1980s, a number of active municipal authorities have set the pace when it comes to cultural policy.
The situation for municipal and regional cultural institutions has changed since the beginning of the 1990s. New forms of management have been introduced which make no allowance for the distinctive conditions of cultural life. Added to this, municipal spending on culture has in many places been cut by anything up to 10%.
Recommended reading
Swedish Cultural Policy. National Council for Cultural
Affairs. Stockholm 1994. 91 pp.
Handbook of Cultural Affairs in Sweden. National Council for
Cultural Affairs. Stockholm 1994. 39 pp.
In 1989 Sweden's national cultural policy was examined by a group of experts as part of a Council of Europe series of cultural policy country reviews. Swedish State Cultural Policy_A National Report, Stockholm 1990, contains a complete description of goals, methods and results. National Cultural Policy in Sweden_Report of a European Group of Experts, Stockholm 1990, provides an assessment of what has been achieved from a European perspective.
Media activities
Percentages of the population (aged 9-99), on an average day
Watched TV, 80%
Listened to the radio, 78%
Read the daily paper, 71%
Listened to a cassette recording, 34%
Read a book, 33%
Read a periodical, 25%
Listened to a gramophone record, 23%
Read a weekly magazine, 19%
Read a comic, 9%
Watched a video, 6%
Source: "Mediebarometern", Sveriges Radio 1992
Visiting activities
Percentages of the population (aged 9-79), in the past twelve
months
Been to concerts etc., 60%
Been to a library, 59%
Seen a film at the cinema, 54%
Been to a museum, 50%
Attended a club meeting, 50%
Been to an art exhibition/art museum, 49%
Visited a historic site, 49%
Been to the theatre/opera etc., 43%
Taken a course/study circle, 26%
Been to a ballet/dance performance, 2%
Source: "Kulturbarometern 1991-1993", Sveriges Radio 1992/the
National Council for Cultural Affairs 1994
Personal activity
Percentages of the population (ages 9-79) who in the course
of an average month have gone in for:
Film-making/photography, 40%
Textile crafts, 31%
Dance (including ballroom dancing etc.), 30%
Writing poetry/keeping a diary, 18%
Playing a musical instrument, 17%
Drawing/painting, 17%
Arts and crafts, approx 10%
Folk dance, approx 10%
Choral singing, 6%
Writing articles/stories/letters to newspapers etc., 6%
Amateur theatricals, approx 4%
Dancing classical/modern ballet, approx 3%
Source: "Kulturbarometern 1991-1993", the National Council
for Cultural Affairs 1994
This fact sheet is part of SI´s information service. It can be used as background
information on condition that the source is acknowledged.
Printed in Sweden, March 1995
Classification: FS 66 j Bf
ISRN SI-FS--95/66-J--SE
ISSN 1101-6124
Fact Sheets on Sweden