- England
The culture and sport sectors generate important benefits to society, but these benefits can be difficult to measure and value. Data from the British Household Panel Survey and the Understanding Society Survey enable us to measure and value these benefits using two of the largest nationally representative surveys of the UK. Attaching values to benefits allows use of cost-benefit analysis to assess culture and sport related interventions. A population-level analysis was conducted with these surveys to analyse the relationship between engagement in cultural and sporting activities on the one hand and key social outcomes of interest on the other.
Previous research based on the UK’s Understanding Society Survey found that engagement in culture and sport was associated with increases in wellbeing, improvements in health, improved educational and economic prospects and higher levels of positive civic participation after controlling for a wide range of other factors (Fujiwara et al., 2014a, Fujiwara et al., 2014b). This report builds upon this work by further examining the links between engaging in culture and sport and health and educational outcomes. We look at the value of these benefits to the individual and to the taxpayer in terms of cost savings.
