Investing in culture for a healthier, more productive society

Visiting a museum or attending a concert can be uplifting for the individual, but new research by Frontier reveals much broader benefits from engaging regularly with culture and heritage.

We estimate the associated gains to the UK economy from improved health, wellbeing and productivity at £8bn a year.

Increasing workforce participation and emphasising prevention in health care are priorities for the new government. With nearly three million people on long-term sick leave in the UK and millions of workdays lost to illness, the focus of ministers is shifting towards keeping people healthy for longer. Good mental health and wellbeing are critical in this regard: happier people are likely to be more committed to their work and to their communities - an important element in building a thriving economy.

It’s widely accepted that exercise makes people healthier and feel better about themselves. But there is a growing body of evidence that exposure to the arts can also help to prevent, treat and manage both physical and mental health problems.

Frontier’s new research, commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as part of its Cultural and Heritage Capital (CHC) Programme, breaks new ground by creating a methodology based on high-quality evidence to attach a value to the health and wellbeing benefits of cultural and heritage engagement. The research was conducted in partnership with University College London’s Social Biobehavioural Research Group.

By quantifying the benefits in pounds and pence, the research provides a straightforward tool for policymakers to assess the value of investing in culture and heritage, and to make a comparison with potential investments elsewhere. Such an approach is in line with the CHC Programme’s objectives of ensuring decisions are based on the economic, social and cultural contribution that the relevant sectors make to society. This is important because, in the absence of a quantitative assessment, officials may perpetuate the common misconception that the monetary value of investing in the arts is close to zero, effectively biasing their decisions.

The first aim of the research project was to assess the body of evidence on the effect the arts have on health and wellbeing. We found that the existing literature is generally formed of studies that investigate the impact of a specific type of cultural or heritage involvement on a specific outcome for a specific group of the population. For this reason, the team created 13 separate quantitative models, each corresponding to a specific relationship found in the literature - for example, arts-based museum activities and general health in older adults.

The second goal of the project was to demonstrate how to put a number on the associated improvement in health and wellbeing. To that end we used either quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) or wellbeing-adjusted life-years (WELLBYs) to estimate the financial value of the benefits to individuals’ quality of life in each model. In addition, where feasible, we also included the health and social savings that come from improved health and wellbeing plus the wider societal benefits from improved productivity.

Taking the most general model, the team estimates that the health and wellbeing benefits associated with an adult engaging with culture and heritage every few months or more (e.g. visiting a museum or a gallery or watching a concert) are worth around £1,000 per year. At the population level, societal benefits, which include increased productivity due to better health, are worth around £8bn a year (see chart below).

Too many people in Britain are in poor health. The economy is not in great shape either. The two are connected: a healthier, more productive workforce is critical if the government is to succeed in boosting growth and raising living standards.  This research helps to clarify – and, importantly, quantify -  the part that culture and heritage can play in improving the nation’s health and wellbeing.