Thank you to everyone who took part in the Annual Museum Survey 2021, especially during such difficult times.
136 museums in the South East took part and submitted visitor and operational data for the period of 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.
This year the survey results are vital to our understanding of the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on our region’s museums. The data provides an important resource that museums can use to both demonstrate the impact of the pandemic on their museum services, as well as to advocate for additional support to recover from these impacts.
Operating since 2018, The Annual Museum Survey 2021 also compares data with previous years to understand the depth of this impact and the pressures it has placed on the museum sector’s paid and volunteer workforce.
Please browse a fully interactive copy of the Annual Museum Survey 2021 Report in the next section.
National Annual Museum Survey 2021
For more information and access to the national report, visit the central Annual Museum Survey Page on our partners South West Museum Development’s website:
Previous Annual Museum Surveys
Data and privacy statements
South West Museum Development (Bristol City Council) is commissioned by each Museum Development region to deliver the Annual Museum Survey 2021.
As the contractor for the Annual Museum Survey 2021, we operate as the Data Processor for each of the regional Museum Development providers. Survey responses are stored and processed in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (2018).
No personal information will be published in publicly available reports or datasets or shared with other organisations. As the Data Processor, on behalf of the eight Museum Development providers, we supply the data generated through the survey along with the contact details of the individual providing the data survey return to each respective Museum Development provider.
South East Museum Development Privacy Policy
The purpose of the Annual Museum Survey 2021
We run this survey to predominantly collect quantitative data, which represents the audiences, workforce and financial operational context of Accreditation museums and those Working Towards Accreditation (WTA) across England. This data is valuable for gaining an understanding of museums in their locality and in a regional and national context. Analysis of the data can inform a benchmark for participant museums year on year and identify trends across the sector at a regional and national level.
Data sharing and open source data
Reports based on this survey will be published widely and made available on this webpage and the websites of regional Museum Development providers. Data provided via the survey will be combined with those of other museums to produce publicly available reports. The data will support sector advocacy, inform Museum Development business planning and sector wide strategic planning.
The dataset will be published as open source data in 2023 to support further research. The aggregate data set generated by the survey in 2021 will be shared with our main funders, Arts Council England.
The dataset will be published as open source data on Museum Development websites from January 2023 – approximately one year after regional reports are published to support further research. The datasets will not include financial information or any personal information generated by the survey process. The aggregate data set generated by the survey in 2021 will be shared with our main funders, Arts Council England.
Annual Museum Survey Resources
We have provided snapshot data on each sub-region within the south east extracted from last year’s 2019-2020 report. On these PDF documents you will find data on the economic impact, visitor numbers and the workforces of museums in each sub-region, extracted and weighted from the full Annual Museum Survey data from the south east.
What does a local authority museum look like in the south east?
What does an Independent Museum look like in the south east?
What does a Museum in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire or Berkshire look like?
What does a Museum in Hampshire Solent look like?
What does a Museum in Surrey or Sussex look like?
We have also created some infographics based on data from the report which you are welcome to download and use for your own communications and reporting.
South east museum workforce infographic
Economic Impact of museums in the south east infographic
Visitor statistics infographic
Equality & diversity planning infographic
We will be adding more infographics over time, please do get in touch if we can produce content which would support you and your museum.
If you would like further detail on your museum’s Annual Museum Survey submission or on any other aspect of the reports please get in touch with us at [email protected].