Scottish Household Survey 2025 findings: Cultural Engagement

Impact of culture and heritage

Respondents were asked about the impact that culture, the arts and heritage have on their lives and communities. For the purpose of this report percentages reported as agreeing combine respondents who ‘strongly agreed’ and ‘tended to agree’ with each statement.

Overall, attitudes towards culture and heritage remained positive in 2025 (Table 56 to Table 69 in the accompanying Excel workbook). Support for Scotland’s heritage was particularly strong. Nine in ten respondents (90%) agreed that it is important that Scotland’s heritage is well looked after, while 70% agreed that the heritage of their local area is well looked after.

Many respondents also reported positive views about the contribution of culture and the arts. More than half agreed that culture and the arts make a positive difference to their local community (57%) and their own life (52%). Forty six percent agreed that there are enough opportunities to get involved in culture and the arts in their local area if they wished to do so (Table 56 in the accompanying Excel workbook).

Among those who agreed that culture and the arts make a positive difference to their life, the most commonly cited reason was that culture and the arts make them feel happy or are something they really enjoy (76%). Almost half (48%) reported that culture and the arts improve their mental health and wellbeing, while 29% said that it helps them to socialise with other people and make new friends. Twenty eight percent reported that culture and the arts make them think and open their mind to different opinions, perspectives and cultures (Table 69 in the accompanying Excel workbook).

Several perceived benefits of culture and the arts changed significantly between 2023 and 2025. The proportion of respondents reporting that culture and the arts improve their mental health and wellbeing increased from 39% to 48%. Significant increases were also observed in the proportions reporting that culture and the arts make them feel happy, help them socialise with others, take their mind off problems, improve physical health and fitness, and expose them to different opinions, perspectives and cultures (Table 69 in the accompanying Excel workbook).

At the same time, the proportion reporting that culture and the arts help them learn new skills and knowledge fell, from 24% to 19% between 2023 and 2025. The proportion of respondents reporting that culture and the arts help them feel part of their local community also fell significantly from 17% in 2023 to 13% in 2025. This contrasts with the majority view that culture and the arts make a positive difference to local communities. Taken together, these findings suggest that people continue to recognise the wider benefits that culture brings to communities, while fewer people identify community belonging and learning new skills as direct personal benefits of their own cultural engagement.