NEA Reports Gains in Poetry Reading and Arts Attendance

Following a report in June indicating poetry readership is on the rise, the National Endowment for the Arts today released their findings from a survey showing an overall increase in arts engagement and attendances, including our favorite art, poetry! A little about the report from the NEA's press release:

New survey findings from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) show gains in arts attendance totals, rates, and demographic groups plus sizeable growth in poetry-reading. Published today, U.S. Trends in Arts Attendance and Literary Reading: 2002-2017 is a first look at results from the 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). A partnership of the NEA and the U.S. Census Bureau, the SPPA is the nation’s largest and longest-running survey of how millions of adults participate in the arts.

The gains in arts attendance in U.S. Trends in Arts Attendance and Literary Reading: 2002-2017 track with findings from a recent National Endowment for the Arts report, in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which shows growth in consumer spending at the box office for performing arts events. The performing arts together with other arts and cultural industries contributed more than $760 billion to the nation’s economy in 2015.

The new U.S. Trends report covers shifting patterns of arts attendance and literary reading as measured by the share of Americans aged 18 years and older who reported doing any of these activities at least once in a year. The report covers the years 2002, 2008, 2012, and 2017.

Let's take a closer look at poetry reading habits from the survey:

Between 2012 and 2017, the rate of poetry-reading among adults grew by 76 percent, to 28 million people in 2017. Other significant findings include:

• The share of 18-24-year-olds who read poetry more than doubled
• Women showed notable gains, increasing from 8 percent in 2012 to 14.5 percent in 2017
• Hispanic poetry readers increased from 4.9 percent in 2012 to 9.7 percent in 2017
• Other racial and ethnic subgroups saw gains such as African Americans (+8.4 percentage points) and Asian Americans (+7.8 percentage points) between 2012 and 2017.

Head to the NEA's site to read more about the findings.