New National Indicators for Museums published
The old English local authority National Indicators for Museums included visitor numbers, user numbers and formal school users. The Indicators changed for 2008 and NI10 now shows the percentage of adults (16+) who have visited a museum or gallery in the last 12 months. The first batch of figures for 2008/09 have been published and are available as a colour map at the following link.
http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/research/NI_10.pdf
Just what this tells us about the success or otherwise of museums in each area is difficult to ascertain. In the NW the ’star’ areas are South Lakeland, Ribble Valley, Sefton, Liverpool, Wirral, Trafford, Manchester and Stockport. The low performers are Allerdale, Copeland, Blackpool, Wyre, Pendle, Hyndburn, Chorley, Wigan, St Helens, Halton, Rochdale and Oldham.
The map is all rather odd – why for example do the people of Crawley shun museums, while surrounded by swathes of avid museum-goers across the surrounding areas of Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Similar pockets of museum resistant people seem to exist in Rushmoor, Ipswich, Harlow and Stevenage. Just what is going on? Could it be the way the data is collected?