Relevance

Cultural statistics data is collected in collaboration with the Creative Economy Working Group, within the Ministry for Finance to make these statistics more relevant and comprehensive for national needs.

The NSO culture statistics programme started in 2001 and over the years data related to culture has been collected for parish feasts, Good Friday processions, cinema statistics, libraries, teaching of performing arts, cultural events by local councils, band clubs and museums, and historical sites.

Culture participation surveys among Maltese residents are also carried out around every 5 years.

Methodological description of survey

Data related to libraries and cultural events by local councils is obtained from administrative sources.  For the remaining cultural topics, data is obtained by means of questionnaires which are sent by mail or email to the concerned organisations.  Given that the target populations are very small for all cultural surveys, a census is taken for each case.

Cultural participation surveys are conducted on persons aged 16 years and over residing in private households.  A stratified random approach is used to select participants and the collection mode is CATI.

Accuracy and reliability of data

Further information about accuracy and reliability of data can be viewed from the quality reports available on the NSO’s metadata website.

Timeliness and punctuality of data

Scheduled news releases are published regularly throughout the year with regards to culture statistics.  For a particular reference year t, data is normally published in year t+1.

Accessibility and clarity of data

In 2006, a publication entitled ‘Culture 2004’ was issued.  Another publication related to culture participation was published in 2012, entitled ‘Culture Participation Survey 2011’. These publications and the dedicated news releases are available on the NSO’s website.

Coherence and comparability/consistency of data

Cultural data is fully comparable at a national level only given that no European Union guidelines are available. The data is not comparable with any other statistical domains being of a different nature and collecting different information.  Various news releases related to culture are not comparable within themselves in view of a difference in the thematic area.

In general, data is fully consistent and therefore comparable and reconcilable over time. Since different cultural data is collected, the length of comparability varies according to the particular cultural event.

Metadata​