Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, 1982-2008 [United States]

The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts collects data on Americans' participation in the arts, including the performing arts, the visual arts, and the literary arts. The 1982, 1985 and 1992 surveys were conducted by the Bureau of the Census, as a supplement to a larger national survey, the National Crime Survey (NCS). The 1997 survey was conducted by Westat. The 2002 and 2008 surveys were conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as a supplement to the Current Population Survey. Except for 1997, surveys were collected from a sample of U.S. households with the sample selected using a stratified, multistage, clustered design and drawn from Census Bureau population counts. All non-institutionalized adults living in the U.S. were eligible. In 1997, telephone interviews were conducted with a random national sample of U.S. adults ages 18 and over. Respondents were asked a core set of questions about their past-year participation in, and frequency of attending, art performances and events. Other questions varied across the years and are listed in the Description of Variables Section. The 1982 data have 19,837 cases and 419 variables; the 1985 data 16,152 cases and 397 variables; the 1992 data 18,775 cases and 344 variables; the 1997 data 12,349 cases and 335 variables; the 2002 data 17,135 cases and 572 variables; and the 2008 data 18,444 cases and 511 variables.