Contents
- Music education participation statistics: activities among young people
- Music education participation statistics: how young people find activities and face barriers
- Music education participation statistics: parent-reported activities
- Music education participation statistics: family access and barriers
- music education participation: Music education delivery: provider responsibilities and activities
- Sources
Music education participation statistics: activities among young people
A UK Department for Education call for evidence, conducted from 9 February to 15 March 2020 and published in August 2021, asked young people aged 13–25 about music activities they currently engaged in. The respondents chose to take part, so these results describe the survey group; they are not population estimates. Question 27 had 273 responses and allowed multiple selections. Its percentages therefore describe how many respondents selected each activity, not mutually exclusive shares of young people. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Question 27, PDF p. 24
| Activity reported by young people | Respondents | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Listen to music | 264 | 96.7% |
| Take music as a school subject | 152 | 55.7% |
| Receive instrument or singing lessons in school | 106 | 38.8% |
| Receive instrument or singing lessons outside school | 140 | 51.3% |
| Learn an instrument or singing through online lessons | 47 | 17.2% |
| Participate in a school ensemble | 167 | 61.2% |
| Participate in an ensemble outside school | 184 | 67.4% |
| Create music | 155 | 56.8% |
| Do no music | 1 | 0.4% |
Listening was the most frequently selected activity in this list. The survey also recorded participation across school and non-school settings: 55.7% said they took music as a school subject, while 51.3% reported lessons outside school. Ensemble participation was reported by 61.2% for school and 67.4% outside school. These are distinct question responses; the figures do not establish how many respondents took part in both settings.
The results include both structured activities and personal music-making. Creating music was selected by 56.8%, and 17.2% reported learning through online lessons. The 0.4% who selected “I don’t do any music” is a response to this current-activities question, not an estimate of the proportion of all young people who do no music. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Question 27, PDF p. 24
Music education participation statistics: how young people find activities and face barriers
Question 28 asked young people engaged in musical activities outside normal school lessons how they had found out about opportunities. It received 242 responses. The findings indicate which discovery routes respondents selected; they do not measure the availability of those routes across the wider population. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Question 28, PDF p. 25
| How respondents found out about activities | Respondents | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Teachers | 136 | 56.2% |
| Parents or carers | 123 | 50.8% |
| Friends | 127 | 52.5% |
| Online | 88 | 36.4% |
| Other | 21 | 8.7% |
Teachers, parents or carers, and friends were each cited by around half of respondents, while 36.4% said they found activities online. Because these are selections by respondents, the percentages need not add to 100%; a young person could identify more than one way of hearing about an opportunity. The data show that personal networks and online discovery both featured in this group’s reported experience. They do not establish which route led to participation.
Question 29 asked whether anything had stopped respondents from taking up musical activities. Among its 194 respondents, 63.9% selected expense and 42.8% selected lack of time. Other answers included feeling not good enough (19.6%) and activities offered not matching what they wanted (19.1%). These barriers describe respondents’ own reports and multiple selections were permitted. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Question 29, PDF p. 26
| Barrier reported by young people | Respondents | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Too expensive | 124 | 63.9% |
| No time | 83 | 42.8% |
| Felt they were not good enough | 38 | 19.6% |
| Activities offered were not what they wanted | 37 | 19.1% |
| Not interested | 9 | 4.6% |
| Parents or carers did not think they should take part | 7 | 3.6% |
Expense stands out among the listed responses, but the table does not show what specific costs respondents faced. Time was also selected by many. The lower reported selections for interest and parental or carer views should be read within this self-selected sample and question, rather than as evidence that these concerns are uncommon among young people generally. The response categories give a snapshot of stated obstacles, not a ranking of interventions or an explanation of why participation differs.
Music education participation statistics: parent-reported activities
Question 36 asked parents and carers which music activities their child currently engaged in. It recorded 1,639 responses and, like the young-person question, allowed multiple selections. These are adult reports about children, separate from the young people’s own answers in Question 27. The two groups and question wording differ, so their percentages should not be treated as directly comparable measures. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Question 36, PDF pp. 30–31
| Activity reported by parents or carers | Respondents | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Listen to music | 1,484 | 90.5% |
| Take music as a school subject | 914 | 55.8% |
| Receive instrument or singing lessons in school | 953 | 58.2% |
| Receive instrument or singing lessons outside school | 918 | 56.0% |
| Use online instrument or singing lessons | 158 | 9.6% |
| Participate in a school ensemble | 810 | 49.4% |
| Participate in an ensemble outside school | 807 | 49.2% |
| Create music | 663 | 40.5% |
| Do no music | 19 | 1.2% |
Parents and carers most often selected listening to music, at 90.5%. School and non-school lessons were each reported for more than half of the children represented in the responses: 58.2% for lessons in school and 56.0% outside school. Ensemble participation was reported at similar levels in the two settings, with 49.4% for a school ensemble and 49.2% for an ensemble outside school. The survey does not indicate from these aggregate figures how many children participated in both.
Online lessons were selected for 9.6%, while 40.5% of respondents reported that their child created music. Only 1.2% selected the no-music category. This is a parent or carer response to a particular activity question in a self-selected call-for-evidence survey; it is not a national prevalence estimate. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Question 36, PDF pp. 30–31
Music education participation statistics: family access and barriers
Question 37 asked parents and carers how they found music education opportunities they wanted their children to take up. It received 1,633 responses. Trusted recommendations were selected by 1,160 respondents (71.0%), and 727 (44.5%) said they used their local music service or music education hub. Online discovery was reported by 417 (25.5%). These are reported ways of finding opportunities, not measures of service coverage or children’s participation. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Question 37, PDF p. 31
The same question recorded 377 respondents (23.1%) who said they only chose activities offered by their child’s school. A further 66 (4.0%) said they had not found any opportunities. The first response describes a selection pattern; the second reports not finding an opportunity. Neither should be read as a count of children without access. The question’s focus is how adults locate or select options, and respondents could report more than one route.
Question 40 asked whether anything had stopped a child from taking up musical activities. Of 895 parent and carer respondents, 554 (61.9%) cited expense. Lack of time was selected by 167 (18.7%), and 159 (17.8%) said no activities were available in their area. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Question 40, PDF p. 33
Other selected barriers were a child’s lack of interest, reported by 70 respondents (7.8%); feeling not good enough, reported by 49 (5.5%); and the view that it was more important for the child to focus on other activities, reported by 46 (5.1%). Multiple selections were allowed, so percentages do not form parts of a single whole. The responses distinguish cost and time from local availability and perceptions about fit or priority, while leaving the specific circumstances behind each answer unstated. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Question 40, PDF p. 33
music education participation: Music education delivery: provider responsibilities and activities
The provider questions offer a different view of participation: they record what educators and organizations said they were responsible for and what activities they offered. Question 41 received 1,512 responses from teachers and workers in schools, colleges, hubs, or music services. Of these, 1,387 (91.7%) said they were responsible for delivering music education; 125 (8.3%) said they were not. These figures describe respondents’ reported roles, not the number of providers or students reached. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Questions 41–42, PDF p. 34
Among the 1,381 respondents responsible for delivery who answered the follow-up activities question, 962 (69.7%) said they offered classroom music teaching in school, further education, or higher education. Individual or group instrumental, singing, theory, or composition lessons were reported by 684 (49.5%). For lessons out of school, 499 respondents (36.1%) selected that activity. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Questions 41–42, PDF p. 34
Ensembles and choirs were offered by 833 respondents, or 60.3%. Workshops or group sessions in or out of school were reported by 514, or 37.2%. These categories describe the range of provision respondents said they offered; they do not indicate how many young people used each activity, how frequently it was available, or whether every respondent’s offer was accessible to every family. Source: Department for Education, Music education: report on the call for evidence, Questions 41–42, PDF pp. 34–35
Across the survey, the relevant questions had different respondent counts and addressed distinct perspectives: young people’s current activities, discovery routes and barriers; adult reports about children and family access; and provider responsibilities and offerings. The evidence was collected in February–March 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the report was published in August 2021. It does not establish present-day participation or represent a population-wide estimate.