Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Taking Part survey collects data on many aspects of leisure, culture and sport in England, as well as an in-depth range of socio-demographic information on respondents. The survey is commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in partnership with three of its non-departmental public bodies (Sport England, Arts Council England and English Heritage). The survey was first commissioned in 2005 as a face-to-face household survey of adults (16+) in England. Since then it has run annually and has also been developed to include further elements, including a child element and a longitudinal element.

Further information can be found on the Gov.uk Taking Part web pages.


For Taking Part, 2011-2012, also known as Year 7 of the continuous survey, 9,188 adults and 771 children aged 11-15 were interviewed. Information was also collected from parents or guardians of 1,040 children aged 5-10. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in home by specially trained interviewers working on behalf of TNS BMRB using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI).

Main Topics:

Main topics covered by the survey include: the arts, museums and galleries, libraries, archives, heritage, sport, volunteering, the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and demographics.

In order to preserve confidentiality, variables relating to census output area, postcode sector, local authority, and primary sampling units have been removed from the UK Data Archive version.