Culture in Hesse: Why are the spectators missing?

In Hesse, an amount of 114 euros per inhabitant was spent on culture in 2020, which is in the middle in a nationwide comparison. This emerges from the publication of the “Cultural Indicators at a Glance” by the Federal Statistical Office. Despite these expenses, it appears that comparatively few people take advantage of the cultural offerings in Hesse.

Cinema attendance only reached 0.9 visits per resident in 2022, while Berlin is at the top with 1.7 visits. The number of museum visits in Hesse in 2021 was 0.3 per resident. In addition, in the 2020/21 season only three people per 1,000 inhabitants attended the concerts of the publicly funded orchestras. At public theaters there were only 20 visitors per 1,000 inhabitants; Regarding comparative power, it should be noted that Saxony has the highest value with 79 theater visits per 1,000 inhabitants.

Cultural indicators and their development

In an overview of the development of the German cultural landscape from 2021 to 2023, theater statistics are also presented in another report from the federal and state statistical offices. There were a total of 2.2 million concert attendances at publicly funded orchestras in the 2021/2022 season, which represents a significant increase compared to 874,000 in the 2020/2021 season. The average of 26.2 concert attendances per 1,000 inhabitants in Germany contrasts with Berlin's 77.2.

Furthermore, theater attendance shows a significant decline; In 2021/2022, 11.6 million visits were counted, after 3.0 million in the previous year and 27.0 million in 2011/2012. The national average is 137 theater visits per 1,000 inhabitants, while Hamburg has the highest figure at 514.

Museum visits in Germany totaled 81.4 million in 2022, an increase from 38.8 million in the previous year. On average, each resident visited 1.0 museums, with Berlin at the top with 3.8.

The brochure “Cultural indicators at a glance” also contains comprehensive cultural data, including information on cultural expenditure, the education sector, monument protection as well as television and radio offerings and is available as a PDF on the statistics portal of the federal and state statistical offices.