The main goal of the Survey on Consumption and Cultural Practices is to obtain an estimate of the effective demand for cultural and entertainment products in Catalonia. It primarily studies the Catalan population's participation in cultural and free-time activities. The goal is to find out how much time people spend on culture, as well as to find out its content and intensity. This goal also extends to the activities they do in their free time, regardless of the motivations they might have (professional or for pleasure).
In order to achieve these goals, we started from a broad sense when defining cultural practices. Thus, we have taken into account practices that are strictly perceived as cultural (reading, music, performances, etc.) along with others that because of their content or form might achieve this status (media, new technologies, etc.).
The Survey on Consumption and Cultural Practices is a consolidated survey performed every five years, two editions of which have been performed: the first in 2001 and the second in 2006. The survey is devised by the Department of Culture and the Media and Idescat, as the bodies in charge of it. The 2001 meant that the cultural practices and habits of the population were included in the realm of official statistics, and it entailed the possibility of obtaining disaggregated results for the seven territorial areas within Catalonia.
The results, which are published on the Idescat website, are classified into the following chapters:
The basic results of the these statistics are published in the documents Enquesta de consum i prąctiques culturals de Catalunya 2001 (PDF) and Enquesta de consum i prąctiques culturals 2006 (PDF, also available in book form); chapter 17 containing the Historical series 2001–2006, is published in the Bank of Statistics on Municipalities and Counties, and the main results can be found in the section Demographics and Quality of Life.
