Cultural engagement brings health and wellbeing benefits worth £8bn

Engaging with culture and heritage improves the health and wellbeing of UK adults to the tune of £8bn every year, according to research commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The research is part of DCMS’s Cultural and Heritage Capital Programme, which aims to ensure that policy decisions are based on the economic, social and cultural contribution that DCMS sectors make to society.

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Conducted by Frontier Economics, the research pioneered new methodology to monetise the health and wellbeing benefits of cultural and heritage engagement.

Frontier created 13 separate models, each corresponding to existing evidence produced by the Social Biobehavioural Research Group and other researchers, to investigate the impact of a specific type of cultural or heritage engagement on a specific outcome, for a specific group of the population.

Each model explored the monetary value of the benefits to individuals’ quality of life using either quality-adjusted life-years or wellbeing-adjusted life-years. Where feasible, the methodology also explored the health and social savings that come from improved health and wellbeing, and the wider societal benefits from improved productivity.

The research found that the health and wellbeing benefits associated with an individual adult engaging with culture and heritage every few months or more – such as by visiting a museum, gallery or watching a concert – are worth approximately £1,000 per year. At population level, the societal benefits, which include increased productivity due to better health, are worth just over £8bn per year.

“This work demonstrates that as well as preserving history and celebrating creativity, investing in culture and heritage unlocks better physical and mental health, reduces healthcare costs and increases the country's productivity,” said Sarah Karlsberg from Frontier Economics.

“Our new research is important as decisions made in the absence of appropriate evidence may assume that the monetary value of some investments is zero. This has historically encouraged investment away from areas such as culture and heritage where the wider impact on the economy has been difficult to monetise.”

Heritage minister Chris Bryant said: “Culture and heritage are the beating heart of communities up and down the country, inspiring, educating and enlightening people from all walks of lives and helping to tell our national story.

“The research, commissioned by DCMS, shows how culture and heritage can directly impact our lives, improving our physical and mental wellbeing and highlights the importance of preserving our rich heritage to ensure it can enrich the lives of many, for years to come.”

Sharon Heal, the director of the Museums Association, welcomed the research. She said: “This report is extremely welcome and very timely. The research adds to the growing body of evidence that demonstrates not only is engagement with culture good for individual wellbeing but it can also take pressure off over-stretched local services.

“The Museums Association’s flagship campaign, Museums Change Lives, has long championed our sector’s ability to enhance health and wellbeing and our new Health and Wellbeing in Museums Fund will provide museums with much needed funding to develop and deliver creative wellbeing interventions from next year.”