Fast Facts

The Megaphone Project. Festival of the 12th FINA World Championships 2007.

Photo: Jeff Busby. Source: Arts Victoria.

Attendance and Participation

87% of all Victorians aged 15 years or over attended a cultural venue or event in 2009-10.
The most popular cultural venue was the cinema with 69% of Victorians attending at least once.
55% of Victorians attended at least one performing arts event.
In 2009-10, Victorians made around 28 million visits to their local libraries borrowing over 53 million items.
In 2009, 33% of Victorian children aged 5 to 14 years particpated in organised cultural activities outside of school hours.
877,300 Victorians (21%) were involved in the culture and leisure activities in 2007.

During 2006-07, almost 18,600 Victorian businesses were actively trading within the cultural sector. 684 of these businesses were turning over more than $2 million annually.
21% of Victorians had some involvement (paid or unpaid) in culture and leisure activities in 2007.
7% of Victorians (around 280,000) had some paid involvement in culture and leisure activities in 2007.
14% (around 587,000) had unpaid involvement in culture and leisure activities in 2007.
In 2006, 127,259 Victorians were employed in either a cultural occupation or in a cultural industry as their main job. 77,192 Victorians had a cultural occupation as their main job.

In 2010, 24% of all higher education students studying creative arts in Australia were enrolled at Victorian universities (equivalent to 17,174 full time students).
15,700 Victorians were studying creative arts in a Vocational Education and Training institution - a 19% increase on the previous year.
in 2009, 32% of children in Victoria aged 5-14 years were actively engaged in playing an instrument, singing, dancing or acting and nearly twice as many girls as boys participated.
47% of children were involved in art and craft activities in their leisure time and 72% read for pleasure.

In 2009-10 total Victorian Government arts portfolio expenditure was $316.5 million.
In 2010, Arts Victoria provided $37.8 million funding to non-government arts organisations.
Cultural funding by local government in Victoria during 2009-10 was $320.2 milion, which represents more than $58 per person.
The Australia Council awarded $39.9 million in funding to Victorian based artists and arts organisations in 2010-11.