Quick Stats

From the Australia Council's More than Bums On Seats (2010):

15% of Australians are involved in creative participation in music (ie. “playing, singing or composing”)

• 11% play a musical instrument
• 5% sing
• 4% write songs, mix/compose music
• (obviously some people do more than one of these!)

57% of Australians are involved in receptive participation in music (ie. “listening to it”)

In total, 62% of Australians participate in music. More than visual arts & crafts (49%), Theatre & Dance (42%) but less than Creative Writing/Reading (84%).

Of the 80 per cent of people who had creatively or receptively participated in visual arts and crafts, theatre, dance, creative writing or music in the past 12 months, a third (32 per cent) of them engaged in some form of community art. This puts community arts involvement at around a quarter (24 per cent) of the population.[i]

From Australian Atttitudes to Music (2001)

In Australia, 36% of households contain at least one person who now plays a musical instrument.  This equates to a rough estimate of 4 million people of all ages (5+ yrs) who play.

Volunteering in the Arts

In 2006, 1.4% of the population (207,200 people) “Undertook voluntary work for an arts/heritage organisation in the last 12 months” and “While the rate of volunteering for arts/cultural organisations is lower than the four most common types of organisation (sports/recreation, education/training, community/welfare, and religious groups), arts and culture volunteers work longer hours for more organisations, indicating a strong commitment to the sector”[ii]

Ensembles

Orchestras: 200+ (Over 110 of them community based)

An estimate, based on “one afternoon’s research” of Australia’s orchestras in 2010 by Anne Cahill, one of the leaders in the field of community orchestras, tells us there are:

• 21 professional orchestras (includes chamber & freelance groups),
• 78 community orchestras and
• 33 community based youth orchestras.
• In addition, from previous TOAN documentation, is a list over 70 schools with orchestras.[iii]

Pipe Bands: 130+

Pipe Bands Australia has 130 member bands. We don’t know if there are more bands than this, it’s our best estimate. [iv]

Choirs: 1000+

The Australian National Choral Association (ANCA) “has over 1000 members Australia wide, with the majority being choirs.” Presumably there are many more in the community. [v]

Local Government

There are 562 local governing bodies in Australia

Some stats from 2006 on Local Government’s provision of cultural services and community arts workers & policies.

“…only 27% of a survey (2005) of 113 local governments in NSW held an active, stand-alone cultural policy and across the 113 councils there was a total of 67 fulltime staff working specifically on cultural services. The survey showed that:

• 30 councils had a cultural policy and 11 councils intended to
• 49 had a cultural plan and 14 intended to
• 69 had cultural integrated in their Social and Community Plan and 5 councils intended to

Within the 113 councils there were:

• 26 full time and 6 part time Managers of Cultural Services
• 28 full time, 16 part time and 3 casual Cultural Development Officers
• 8 full time and 3 part time Cultural Planners
• 5 full time, 4 part time and 7 casual Community Arts Officers

Source: Regional Arts NSW[vi]

Music in Schools