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Arts & Culture Benchmark Report 2024–25

Culture Counts
114
Organisations
839
Surveys
130k
Survey Responses

Contents

▲ Perth Festival, East Perth Power Station — Photo: Sky Perth

Overview

Valuing Arts and Culture

Culture Counts was founded in 2012 with a mission to enable the cultural sector to capture and communicate value, and easily demonstrate the vital cultural, social and economic outcomes that the sector generates for society.

Ongoing, rigorous measurement is essential for building a solid evidence base that contributes to the rich value story of the arts.

In 2024–25, Culture Counts subscribers in Australia, New Zealand and Asia collected feedback from more than 130,000 arts attendees, participants and artists.

This big data set celebrates the role of cultural events, programs and activities in fostering creative expression, facilitating connection, building social cohesion, amplifying marginalised voices, inspiring critical thinking, enhancing quality of life, and much more.

This benchmark report provides a snapshot of these results from a selection of cultural sector organisations in 2024–25.

The important outcomes generated by arts and cultural organisations are a key focus of the data. The report also provides insights into the demographic mix, location and experience of respondents.

Organisations in the arts and cultural sector can use this benchmark data to gain confidence in choosing the right metrics, compare against their own results, and set KPIs for the coming year. Contact us to discuss incorporating benchmarks into your reporting.

Evaluation Services

Culture Counts provides a suite of evaluation services to help organisations measure outcomes aligned with cultural, social, economic and community outcomes. This includes reviewing their strategic objectives and goals and aligning with appropriate outcome areas and evaluation measures. The process ensures that all evaluations are designed and executed in accordance with an agreed strategic direction and all data collected can be linked to important and agreed success factors.

Culture Counts helps organisations to plan best-practice evaluations through the creation of evaluation schedules, provision of survey templates, distribution plans and monitoring of response rates. Evaluation planning maps out the data collection strategy across programs to ensure a rigorous process is followed and the broad range of benefits and impacts of programs are captured.

Culture Counts surveys typically contain a range of ‘dimension’ questions developed and tested in collaboration with industry, practitioners and academics to measure the impact and value of arts and cultural events and activities. Dimensions are assessed using a Likert scale, in which respondents move a slider to indicate whether they agree or disagree with the dimension statement. An example of this question format as used in the Culture Counts survey tool is displayed below.

likert scale example
▲ Poetry Month by Red Room Poetry — Photo: Tawfik Elgazzar

Dimension Framework and Usage

The Culture Counts Evaluation Platform contains in-built sets of metrics, designed to measure outcomes associated with cultural and community experiences. Metrics have been developed, tested and refined with the sector, and enable easy data collection from audiences and communities. The use of standardised language and consistent collection methodologies enables data to be aggregated, providing the opportunity for sector benchmarking and big data insights.

Culture Counts' metrics enable measurement across cultural, social, community, environmental and economic domains. By using an agreed set of outcomes across these domains, it is possible for all investments or programs to be evaluated using the same criteria, to identify where the greatest change is occurring and where best to direct limited funds to achieve maximum benefit.

The table below shows the Dimensions and Statements used by the selected arts and cultural organisations in 2024–25. The table also illustrates the number of surveys in which each Dimension is included, and the number of survey responses captured across the selected surveys for each Dimension. To be included in the benchmark set, a Dimension had to be used in at least 10 surveys.

Domain Dimension Statement Surveys Responses Benchmark*
Cultural Motivation I feel motivated to do more creative things in the future 15 1,403 89
Cultural Aesthetic Experience It gave me a sense of joy, beauty and wonder 37 7,668 89
Cultural Cohesion It helped me to understand and value different cultures 12 1,511 87
Cultural Learning I learned something new 15 1,852 84
Cultural Understanding It gave me new understanding and perspective of art 43 4,525 82
Cultural Insight It helped me gain new insight or knowledge 44 3,270 82
Cultural Meaning It moved and inspired me 203 31,206 82
Cultural Creativity It inspired my own creativity 32 1,886 80
Cultural Curiosity It sparked my curiosity and made me want to find out more 26 3,144 77
Cultural Imagination It opened my mind to new possibilities 44 5,522 76
Cultural Heritage It made me feel connected to a shared history/culture 94 8,739 76
Cultural Challenge It challenged me to think in a different way 71 13,656 75
Domain Dimension Statement Surveys Responses Benchmark*
Social Safe It made me feel safe and welcome 29 4,645 91
Social Acceptance I felt like I could be myself 15 662 91
Social Equality I was treated as an equal 23 4,781 89
Social Inclusion It made me feel welcome and included 168 11,993 87
Social Contribution I felt like my contribution mattered 17 773 87
Social Cultural Access It gave me the opportunity to access cultural activities 39 4,346 84
Social Confidence I feel more confident about doing new things 12 474 84
Social Wellbeing It had a positive impact on my physical health and mental wellbeing 90 9,753 82
Social Access It gave me the opportunity to access activities I would otherwise not have access to 197 19,859 79
Social Connection It helped me to feel connected to people in the community 132 18,513 76
Domain Dimension Statement Surveys Responses Benchmark*
Community Community Pride It made me feel proud of my community 13 2,279 83
Community Participation It encouraged me to participate in community activities 16 1,261 82
Community Place It made me feel proud of my local area 34 8,164 81
Community Understanding It helped me to better understand the place and people where I live 14 1,089 80
Community Positivity It made me feel positive about the community's future 16 856 79
Community Belonging It helped me feel part of the community 135 16,835 78
Domain Dimension Statement Surveys Responses Benchmark*
Economic Artistic Skills It helped me improve my artistic skills 16 730 86
Economic Growth It could appeal to new audiences 27 4,262 83
Economic Skills It helped me gain new skills 16 561 82
Economic Diversity It engaged people from different backgrounds 67 12,567 82
Economic Practice development It contributed to the development of my arts practice or business 23 870 79
Economic Opportunity It opened up new opportunities for me 15 633 79
Economic Networks It connected me with other people in my field 16 622 77
Domain Dimension Statement Surveys Responses Benchmark*
Placemaking Atmosphere I enjoy the atmosphere here 37 12,108 89
Placemaking Vibe I enjoy the vibrancy and the people in this place 11 5,233 89
Placemaking Vibrancy I enjoy the vibrancy and activity here 85 26,229 88
Placemaking Safety I feel safe here 13 348 88
Placemaking Facilities I am satisfied with the public facilities here 36 2,741 87
Domain Dimension Statement Surveys Responses Benchmark*
Qualities Enthusiasm I would come to something like this again 221 48,649 91
Qualities Enjoyment I had a good time 16 1,355 91
Qualities Presentation It was well produced and presented 251 32,715 90
Qualities Local Impact It's important that it's happening here 211 26,043 90
Qualities Responsiveness The organisers responded well to the needs of the group 11 313 90
Qualities Captivation It held my interest and attention 159 25,593 90
Qualities Rigour It was well thought through and put together 192 25,082 88
Qualities Concept It was an interesting idea 74 4,987 88
Qualities Cultural Contribution It provides an important addition to the cultural life of the area 248 45,687 88
Qualities Risk The artists were not afraid to try new things 31 3,281 86
Qualities Innovation It was introduced to the audience in a new way 24 5,839 82
Qualities Content It reflected a broad and inclusive range of voices 113 10,479 81
Qualities Authenticity It had a connection to the State/Country we live in 13 2,317 80
Qualities Excellence It is one of the best examples of its type that I have experienced 113 17,734 80
Qualities Distinctiveness It was different from things I've experienced before 118 17,056 80
Qualities Relevance It had something to say about today's world 118 23,258 75
Qualities Originality It was ground-breaking 13 1,517 70

*'Benchmark' refers to the median survey result in the Arts & Culture benchmark dataset.

Outcome Area Descriptions

The table below describes each of the 19 outcome areas within the framework. These reflect the changes that arts and culture organisations seek to generate for their communities through the services, facilities and experiences they provide.


DomainOutcome AreaOutcome Description
CulturalStimulating CreativityStimulating creativity or sparking the imagination
CulturalAesthetic EnrichmentFeeling positive emotion, challenge or transcending the everyday through an aesthetic encounter
CulturalInsight & ReflectionDeveloping knowledge, ideas and insights resulting from the work
CulturalAppreciation of ExpressionDeveloping an appreciation of different forms of cultural expression, including new forms generated when diverse cultures come together
CulturalShared HeritageDeveloping a connection to a shared cultural history and heritage and experience of cultural identity and values
SocialEquality & EquityEnsuring fair and just opportunities, experiences and outcomes
SocialConnectionBuilding and strengthening connections and understanding between different people
SocialSafety & SecuritySafety, security & freedom from discrimination supported
SocialMental WellbeingImproving quality of life and mental wellbeing
SocialPhysical HealthImproving physical health
CommunityCommunity BelongingEnhancing a sense of belonging, connection to and appreciation of local or wider community
CommunityLocal EngagementInspiring people to participate more actively within their communities.
CommunityPride & PlaceIncreasing sense of value or appreciation for a particular place.
EconomicEmployment ProspectDeveloping skills or knowledge that enhance capacity to obtain meaningful employment, or to be effective in profession or practice
EconomicIndividual Economic WellbeingContributing to the economic wellbeing individuals need to meet living costs, maintain standards of living, flourish and be fulfilled
EconomicSector DevelopmentDeveloping networks, new works, innovations or investments
EconomicReachGreater number and diversity of audiences/visitors
EnvironmentalEnvironmental AwarenessIncreasing understanding and awareness of environmental issues and their impact on their community and the world
EnvironmentalNatural ConnectionHelping our connection to the natural world be recognised, understood and appreciated
▲ HONŌUR, Queer Imaginings, Midsumma Festival 2025 — Photo: CASIMARIA

Dimension Outcomes

In 2024–25, selected arts and cultural organisations collected 130,000 survey responses from more than 800 surveys. From these, 588,294 dimension question responses were recorded. This provides a very comprehensive picture of the outcomes generated by arts and culture organisations from their evaluated activities, and a strong set of benchmarks to which they can compare their own results and set targets.

The set of charts below show the typical range of survey results for each dimension question, grouped into their appropriate domains. This range is known as the interquartile range, and represents the "typical" result that can be benchmarked against. The solid line is the median result. Additionally, benchmark ranges are provided by artform, enabling organisations to benchmark against others from their relevant category, or from organisations across the entire sector.

How to use this chart

After you have collected survey responses for Dimension questions using Culture Counts, you can view the results in the Analytics Dashboard to see the average (or "mean") score. The charts below show the typical range that these average scores fall into.

For each Dimension there is a range from the Q1 (25th percentile) to Q3 (75th percentile) values, known as the interquartile range, with a white line representing the median result. Hover over the bars to see the each value in detail.

Simply put, this means that if your score lies above the median (solid line), your result was higher than (at least) half of all of the surveys in the benchmark dataset. If your result sits outside of the box to the right (higher than the Q3 value) you are in the top 25% of all surveys - a great result!

Additionally, the size (or spread) of the interquartile range itself can tell us about how much variation there is in the typical result. A large interquartile range means that there are greater differences in survey results, whereas a narrow range indicates that the results are mostly quite similar or consistent.

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Surveys: 11 < s < 251; Responses: 313 < n < 48,649
Note: Minimum number of surveys for dimension to be included is 10.
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Surveys: 11 < s < 39; Responses: 2,051 < n < 25,677
Note: Minimum number of surveys for dimension to be included is 10.
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Surveys: 10 < s < 193; Responses: 273 < n < 23,402
Note: Minimum number of surveys for dimension to be included is 10.
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Surveys: 10 < s < 35; Responses: 373 < n < 7,433
Note: Minimum number of surveys for dimension to be included is 10.
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Surveys: 10 < s < 22; Responses: 338 < n < 1,114
Note: Minimum number of surveys for dimension to be included is 10.
▲ A couple enjoying ‘The Butterfly House’ by Born in a Taxi, presented at pop-up venue ‘The Cube’ for Joondalup Festival 2025 — Photo: Aaron Claringbold

Respondent Profile

Gender, age, postcode and identity information is collected in a standard way via the Question Bank feature in the Culture Counts survey builder. This enables demographic data to be aggregated across the database and filtered to understand trends and differences in engagement and outcomes by demographic.

The charts below show the gender, age and identity breakdown of arts and culture survey respondents in 2024–25. Over 40,000 respondents provided their gender, over 83,000 provided their age, and over 30,000 provided their identity classification. The results are also compared by artform.

How to use these chart

The benchmarks for non-Dimension questions shown in the rest of this report are presented in a similar format. For choice-based questions, the typical percentage of respondents is shown using a range from the Q1 (25th percentile) to Q3 (75th percentile) values, known as the interquartile range. The solid line represents the median result. Hover over the bars to see the values for each in detail.

If your result is above the median (solid line), it demonstrates that it is higher than the typical survey. Results that fall outside the interquartile range demonstrate either a score that has exceeded the benchmark (above Q3) or fallen short (below Q1), suggesting possible areas of improvement.

For example, if a survey had a percentage of male respondents of 42%, we could see that this is a higher proportion when compared to the typical survey result. Specifically, the Q3 value for the 'Male' category ('Overall' benchmark set) is 32%, and so a value of 42% is higher than typical.

Additionally, the size (or spread) of the interquartile range itself can tell us about how much variation there is in the typical result. A large interquartile range means that there are greater differences in survey results, whereas a narrow range indicates that the results are mostly quite similar or consistent.

Gender

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Overall: 401 surveys, 40,245 responses; Cultural Institutions: 28 surveys, 2,332 responses; Festival: 22 surveys, 5,798 responses; Performing Arts: 321 surveys, 30,649 responses; Support Organisation: 30 surveys, 1,466 responses.

Age Group

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Overall: 521 surveys, 83,246 responses; Cultural Institutions: 82 surveys, 30,437 responses; Festival: 47 surveys, 11,487 responses; Performing Arts: 343 surveys, 38,761 responses; Support Organisation: 49 surveys, 2,561 responses.

Identity

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Overall: 264 surveys, 30,552 responses; Cultural Institutions: 28 surveys, 5,919 responses; Festival: 26 surveys, 8,365 responses; Performing Arts: 176 surveys, 14,411 responses; Support Organisation: 34 surveys, 1,857 responses.
▲ Darwin Entertainment Centre, Darwin Comedy Festival — Photo: Paz Tassone

Experience

The Culture Counts Evaluation Platform contains a Question Bank of in-built questions that sits alongside the outcomes dimensions. These cover topics such as tourism, demographics, marketing and patron behaviour, using best-practice question formats. Two experience questions have been used by organisations consistently for many years, and are designed to measure overall experience and likelihood of recommendation (net promoter score). The consistent format enables data to be aggregated for benchmarking and filtered to understand trends and differences across variables.

The first chart below shows the typical range of results for arts and culture surveys with respondents who had an excellent, good, neutral, poor or terrible experience with the event, activity or service that was being evaluated. The question was included in 378 surveys and more than 44,000 responses were collected. Results are also provided by artform.

Overall Experience

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Overall: 378 surveys, 44,077 responses; Cultural Institutions: 37 surveys, 5,535 responses; Festival: 50 surveys, 12,495 responses; Performing Arts: 240 surveys, 23,577 responses; Support Organisation: 51 surveys, 2,470 responses.

Would Recommend (Net Promoter Score)

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a standard marketing metric that can be calculated by grouping respondents who answer the question "How likely is it that you would recommend this event to a friend or colleague?" into categories of 'Promoter', 'Neutral', and 'Detractor'. The NPS value is the proportion of Promoters minus the proportion of Detractors, and can be between -100 and +100.

The chart below shows a benchmark range of NPS scores for arts and culture organisation surveys in the Culture Counts database, also broken down by artform. This dataset contains almost 500 surveys, and over 72,000 individual responses to the net promoter score question.

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Overall: 490 surveys, 72,265 responses; Cultural Institutions: 88 surveys, 29,523 responses; Festival: 57 surveys, 12,093 responses; Performing Arts: 311 surveys, 29,021 responses; Support Organisation: 34 surveys, 1,628 responses.

ArtformBenchmark (median) Net Promoter ScoreInterquartile Range (IQR)
Overall6350-74
Cultural Institutions5535-70
Performing Arts6757-76
Festival5747-65
Support Organisation4626-65
▲ Ten Days on the Island — Photo: Brad Harris

Marketing and Tourism

The Culture Counts Question Bank contains a marketing question that asks respondents how they heard about an event, activity or program. In 2024–25, 74 arts and cultural organisations used this standard question in their surveys, collecting over 7,400 responses. This data can assist organisations in using or promoting particular marketing methods that generate the greatest awareness or engagement.

Organisations carrying out economic impact assessment or wanting to understand the tourism impact of their events or activities ask respondents for their location of residence. More than 38,000 responses were collected in 2024–25. This measures the percentage of respondents living in the local government area, as well as those travelling from the wider metropolitan area, other parts of the state, interstate or overseas. Events with greater proportions of non-local attendees often bring additional expenditure into the local area, which can in turn boost the local economy. This data can assist organisations in understanding the typical tourism attraction of local activities and consider ways to increase the tourism and economic impact of certain events.

The first chart below shows the benchmark range for each marketing method as a respondent's primary source of information about the activity being evaluated. The second chart shows the benchmark range for respondents' primary location of residence.

Marketing

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Overall: 74 surveys, 7,499 responses; Cultural Institutions: 8 surveys, 391 responses; Performing Arts: 58 surveys, 6,788 responses; Support Organisation: 8 surveys, 320 responses.
Note: Not enough Festival surveys available to create benchmark.

Tourism

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Overall: 227 surveys, 38,151 responses; Cultural Institutions: 11 surveys, 2,837 responses; Festival: 42 surveys, 10,007 responses; Performing Arts: 162 surveys, 24,314 responses; Support Organisation: 12 surveys, 993 responses.
▲ Art on the Move, Jila Kujarra Two Snakes Dreaming — Photo: Ashleigh Buchholz

First Nations

Australia has a long and rich history of arts and culture, and First Nations peoples have been creating art in many forms for thousands of years. Currently, a range of organisations use Culture Counts to collect data on the outcomes of their programs and events of these disciplines.

To highlight these outcomes, we have split First Nations organisations into their own section. Despite coming from different artforms, we have found consistencies amongst the Dimension statements chosen.

Dimension Outcomes

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Surveys: 5 < s < 20; Responses: 35 < n < 616.
▲ Fremantle International Street Arts Festival 2025 — Photo: E Alcantra

Respondent Profile

Gender

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Surveys: 33; Responses: 839.

Age Group

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Surveys: 48; Responses: 1,965.
▲ Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, installation view, presented by Aboriginal Art Centre Hub of Western Australia (AACHWA), Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), 2025. — Photo: Rebecca Mansell

Experience

Overall Experience

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Surveys: 42; Responses: 1,523.

Would Recommend (Net Promoter Score)

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Surveys: 33; Responses: 1,618.
▲ Tai Kwun Culture and Arts Limited, Soundtrack of Our Lives, Summer Exhibition 2024 — Photo: Tai Kwun

Talk to us


We would love to partner with you on your evaluation journey. Please complete the enquiry form and we will be in touch!

Data and Insights by

This report has been prepared by Culture Counts.

We would like to thank the following organisations for providing the images in this report:

Midsumma Festival (Photo: CASIMARIA)
Perth Festival (Photo: Sky Perth)
Red Room (Photo: Tawfik Elgazzar)
Joondalup Festival (Photo: Aaron Claringbold)
Darwin Entertainment Centre (Photo: Paz Tassone)
Ten Days on the Island (Photo: Brad Harris)
Art on the Move (Photo: Ashleigh Buchholz)
Fremantle International Street Arts Festival (Photo: E Alacantra)
PICA (Photo: Rebecca Mansell)
Tai Kwun Culture and Arts Centre (Photo: Tai Kwun)



We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and to Elders past and present.