New Zealanders’ Cultural Participation in 2025 | Manatū Taonga

Overview

In 2020, Manatū Taonga commissioned research to better understand New Zealanders’ participation in cultural events and activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research surveyed people's participation in a variety of arts, culture, and heritage activities, their preferences for in-person and online events, and barriers to engagement.

The research was repeated in 2022 and 2023. In 2025, Manatū Taonga commissioned Verian to update the participation research.

Participation

The number of New Zealanders (18+ years) who have visited or attended at least one form of arts, culture, or heritage activity in the past year has increased slightly to 88 percent (compared to 87% in 2023 and 81% in 2022).

When looking at visits and attendance across different categories of activities (domains), there are some notable increases in most since 2022. These include visual arts, and literature and education, while performing arts and festivals show the strongest increases since 2022.

Other highlights about the cultural participation of New Zealanders include:

In the past three months, just over nine in 10 New Zealanders listened to NZ radio, music or podcasts (this is consistent with previous years).
75% watched NZ movies or shows in the past three months.
40% say they have actively created, performed or produced cultural or creative work in the prior twelve months, which is lower than 44% in 2023. Craft-based practices were the most common (17%), with music next (15%).
Top reasons for attending creative or cultural activities were to have fun/be entertained (46%), to do something interesting or fun with family/whanau (42%), and to learn or experience something new (38%).
‘Accessibility or convenience’ is the main factor (72%) that would encourage respondents to engage more with arts, culture or heritage, including things like lower prices or fees, location, transport or parking, and event timing.
Six in 10 New Zealanders agree that experiencing arts, culture, and heritage improves their wellbeing (64%), their knowledge (63%), and makes them feel proud of New Zealand (61%).

Digital technology

In 2025, a new digital technology use in creative and cultural practices module was added to the survey. Highlights include:

69% of creators use digital tools in their creative process. This represents 28% of adult New Zealanders.
65% of creators who use digital tools have specifically utilised generative AI as part of their process. This includes to explore or improve ideas (49%), generate/produce work (34%), and share work more widely/make it accessible (14%).
For creators who do not use digital tools, over one third (36%) identify a lack of technological skills or knowledge as a barrier.

Volunteering

In 2025, a new set of questions on volunteering to support arts, culture, and heritage activities was added to the survey. Highlights include:

24% of New Zealanders volunteer to support arts, culture, and heritage activities.
Cultural festivals and events had the highest volunteer activity (37% of volunteers) whilst Ngā Toi Māori volunteers give the most time (a median of 10 hours over a typical four-week period).
Young people (18-29 years; 35%) and Māori (31%) were more likely to volunteer for arts and cultural activities, compared to those over 30 (21%) and non-Māori (23%).

Matariki

The results from the 2025 questions about Matariki showed:

88% of New Zealanders reporting a basic or good understanding of Matariki (up from 84% in 2024, but similar to 87% in 2022).
The percentage of those who celebrated Matariki in 2025 (52%) was lower than in 2024 (64%), yet in line with 2022 findings (51%).