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.


This study is subject to restrictive Special Licence (SL) access conditions as it contains additional detailed geographic variables (Local Authorities; ACORN Group; ACORN Category; ONS Urban Rural Classification). The End User Licence (EUL) version which is the same, but excludes these detailed variables, is available from the UK Data Service under SN 8070. Users are advised to first obtain the standard EUL version of the data to see if they are sufficient for their research requirements. The SL data have more restrictive access conditions; prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version.


Main Topics:

Main topics covered by the survey include: the arts, museums and galleries, libraries, archives, heritage, sport, volunteering, charitable giving, special events (currently the First World War Commemorations and the 2012 Olympic games), personal well-being and demographics. Almost all of these topics appear in the main adult and child data sets.