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How Often Does the Public Engage with the Arts and Humanities? (Part 2)

By
Sara Mohr
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Since 2019, the Academy’s Humanities Indicators project has administered a series of surveys asking about public engagement with various types of humanistic content, using NORC’s AmeriSpeak survey panel. This was the fourth survey of its type for the Academy, albeit with some modest variations over time (the first survey asked about more activities than the rest and had a wider, twelve-month, time frame than the rest, which asked about only the past three months). Still, some notable patterns have emerged in the surveys, with a few points of significant difference.

For instance, the 2019 survey found nine activities that a half or more of Americans engaged in at least sometimes over the course of the previous year. The 2024 survey found only six of those activities had similar levels of engagement when the frame was narrowed to a three-month time frame, but the most popular types of activities remained largely the same: consuming humanities-related media, researching humanities subjects, and reading fiction.

Activities that required leaving the home tended to have lower levels of engagement than other activities. While visiting history museums and historic sites was at the upper end of the frequency range in 2019, visiting a library was the most popular humanities activity outside the home in 2024, with 25% of Americans doing so often or very often and only 19% saying they did so rarely.

A full comparison between the rate of engagement with activities outside the home from 2019 to 2024 is difficult to make because four of the six activities in the 2024 survey were not included in 2019—visiting a library, attending a concert, attending a theater show, and attending a dance performance. For the remaining two activities—visiting an art museum, festival, or event and visiting a history museum or historic site—engagement decreased from 2019 to 2024—and grew more polarized at the two extremes (very often and never). For both activities, the share of Americans reporting engagement often or very often increased, and those reporting they engaged rarely or never increased or stayed the same. The share who reported engaging with these activities only sometimes fell substantially from 2019 to 2024.

In both 2019 and 2024, the largest share of Americans engaged with the humanities by watching shows with historical content. A somewhat smaller share in 2024 did so often or very often than in 2019 (43% in 2024 and 46% in 2019), while the share of those who did so rarely or never increased (from less than 20% in 2019 to 28% in 2024). Older Americans continued to be substantially more likely than younger Americans to watch history-focused shows often or very often, though age did not appear to be a factor among those who never engaged with this activity.

The 2019 and 2024 surveys both showed a substantial difference between the share of Americans who watched history-focused content and those who watched shows with other humanities content. In 2024, 43% of Americans watched shows with history-focused content often or very often, while just 29% watched shows with other humanities content often or very often. The share of Americans who never watched a history-focused show (13%) was substantially lower than those who never watched a show with other humanities content (23%).

In contrast to show watching, older Americans from 2019 to 2024 remained significantly less likely than younger Americans to listen to humanities content. Among those who watched shows with historical content or watched other humanities content, Americans 60 and older were slightly more likely to do so often. In contrast, older Americans were significantly less likely than younger Americans to listen to humanities content often or very often, and significantly more likely than younger Americans to never do so.

Americans with the highest annual household incomes and Americans with the highest level of education in both 2019 and 2024 were generally more likely to engage in humanities-related activities. This higher level of engagement was evident across a variety of activities, from reading to research, and from at-home activities to activities outside the home.

Some striking similarities—and some key differences—were observed between the June 2024 survey and a similar survey conducted in early July 2020. Together, they highlight the role cultural activities played in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 survey asked about a similar three-month time frame for engagement but some of the activities that involved going out to public spaces.

The 2020 survey found only three activities in which half or more of Americans engaged at least sometimes: reading fiction, watching a show with history content, and researching the history of something of interest. The 2024 survey found a similar level of engagement for all three activities, plus three additional ones: watching a show on other humanities content, watching a music or theater performance online, looking up humanities-related information to gain a deeper understanding of the subject.

In 2020, the activities Americans most frequently engaged in often or very often were watching a show with historical content (83%), researching the history of something of interest (69%), and watching a show on art, literature, philosophy, culture, or world religions (69%). In 2024, watching a show with historical content remained the activity that the largest share of Americans engaged in (86%). Researching the history of something of interest (83%) and watching a show on art, literature, philosophy, culture, or world religions (73%) remained popular in a September 2023 version of the survey and in 2024. While the share of Americans who watched a show on art, literature, philosophy, culture, or world religions increased more from 2020 to 2024 than the share who watched a show with historical content, a substantial difference was found between the two between 2020 and 2024.

In both 2020 and 2024, age and gender appeared to be a factor in the likelihood of watching a show with historical content. For both years, older Americans were more likely to do so often or very often than younger Americans. In 2020, older Americans were the least likely to never watch a show with historical content, while in 2024 little difference was observed between the age cohorts in the share who never watched historical shows. Additionally, for both 2020 and 2024, men were more likely than women to watch shows with historical content often or very often, and men were the least likely to say they never did. However, between the two years, the difference in shares between the two genders increased. In 2020, 42% of women reported engaging often or very often compared to 49% of men. In 2024, 36% of women reported engaging often or very often compared to 50% of men. In 2020, 17% of women reported never watching a show with historical content compared to 13% of men. In 2024, 16% of women reported never doing so compared to just 9% of men. This increase in difference was also evident in 2023.

For most activities, engagement increased modestly from 2020 to 2024. The exception was engaging in religious text study, where no change in share was observed. Black Americans continued to be the most likely to engage in this activity, which was similar to findings in the September 2023 survey. Researching the history of something of interest saw the largest gains with an increase of 14% from 2020 to 2024. Seven of the twelve activities included in both surveys saw an increase in the percentage of Americans who reported engaging in them often or very often, with looking up information about a humanities topic to gain a deeper understanding seeing the biggest increase (7%). In keeping with the overall trend, only three activities saw an increased or similar percentage of Americans reporting they engaged with them rarely or never, while the majority of activities saw a decrease. Thinking about or further researching the ethical aspects of a choice saw the largest drop in this area (-10%).

Looking at the shifting patterns of engagement by education level from 2019 to 2020 to 2024 reveals the profound effect the COVID-19 pandemic had on public engagement with these activities. For both 2019 and 2024, Americans with at least a bachelor's degree were generally more likely to engage in humanities-related activities at least sometimes. However, in the midst of the pandemic, Americans who had only some college or an associate’s degree were most likely to participate in these activities.

The Academy’s June 2024 survey highlights how Americans’ engagement with a wide variety of cultural activities has changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the most popular activities remained the same, and a majority of activities included in both the 2020 and 2024 surveys showed an increase in participation. Polarization within the frequency of engagement as well as shifts in popularity within demographics related to gender, race, income, and education level showed were more revealing of how the pandemic changed Americans’ engagement with cultural activity both inside and outside the home.

The Humanities Indicators will likely administer this survey again in 2026, so we welcome thoughts or suggestions for revisions from the community, or more general questions about results from past surveys. Please contact Robert Townsend, director of humanities, arts, and culture programs at rtownsend@amacad.org.

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