Analytics, Culture, Estonia, Forum, Society, Tourism

In 2015, Estonian museums were visited by 498,770 persons, meaning that one museum visitor made an average of 7.3 visits.

There were 2,752 museum visits per 1,000 inhabitants in Estonia in 2015 and despite the fall in the number of visits, according to Egmus.eu, Estonia stands out as one of the European countries with the most active museum visitors. Children in Estonia visit museums diligently as well: children under 9 years old went to museums 235,000 times in 2015.

In 2015, 56% of the museum visitors were women, and people in the age group 30–39 were the most avid museum visitors. Personal development was deemed the main reason for visiting museums.

The number of museums has remained unchanged since 2013. In 2015, there were 256 active museums in Estonia. The number of exhibitions, however, has declined – while there were 1,818 exhibitions in 2014, then 1,784 exhibitions were held last year.

Museums employed 1,733 people, which is 134 persons fewer than in 2014. About 3,873 people contributed to the museum sector as volunteers. Despite the drop in the number of employees, 19% more scholarly articles were published in 2015 than a year earlier.

On Saturday, 14 May, Estonia once again celebrates the European Night of Museums. For this year’s event, museums have chosen the umbrella theme “Waves in the Night”. More information is available at http://www.muuseumioo.ee/. In 141 days, on 1 October 2016, the Estonian National Museum will be reopened for exhibitions and this will surely impact on this year’s statistics on museum attendance.