Data Cuts, Broader Population Comparison, & Current Participants
When you sign up for the Annual Survey of Museum-Goers, you receive data on your museum and how it compares to the field at-large.
When at least five museums of the same type or geographic location (city or state) sign up for the Annual Survey of Museum-Goers, you may also receive additional comparative data cuts, giving you even more benchmarking data.
Below are the data cuts that were available for 2024.
By Museum Type
In 2024, we provided data cuts for:
Children’s Museums
Natural History Museums
Science/Technology Centers
General Museums
Botanic Gardens/Arboreta
Museums with significant Indigenous Belongings
Multi-Disciplinary Museums
Anthropology
Nature Center/Preserve
Zoos/Aquariums
Air and Space (2 more needed)
Social Justice Museums (2 more needed)
Art Museums, including by:
Regional Art Museums
College or University Art Museums
Contemporary Art Museums
Encyclopedic Art Museums
Decorative Arts
Design Museums (2 more needed)
Single-artist (2 more needed)
History-related museums, including by:
Historic Sites
Historic Houses
Outdoor History Museums
City History Museums
State History Museums
Estates/Mansions
Local History/Historical Society
Historic Sites of Enslavement
Military History
Industrial History
Maritime History
Revolutionary/Founding of the US Historic Sites (1 more needed)
Presidential Museums/Sites (1 more needed)
By Location
In 2024, we provided data cuts for:
Washington, D.C.
Denver metro area
Chicago Metro Area
Ohio
Michigan
Virginia
Massachusetts
Northern California
Southern California
Pennsylvania
New York State
Texas
Miami metro area
Dallas/Fort Worth
Florida (excluding Miami metro) (1 more needed)
North Carolina (1 more needed)
Arizona (1 more needed)
Washington state (1 more needed)
Connecticut (1 more needed)
Philadelphia (2 more needed)
Boston metro (2 more needed)
Maryland (2 more needed)
New Mexico (2 more needed)
Minneapolis/St Paul (2 more needed)
By Budget
In 2024, we provided data cuts for:
$400,000 – $1 million, with additional cuts by:
Art museums
History museums
Historic houses
$1.1 million – $5 million, with additional cuts by:
Art museums
University/College Art Museums
Regional Art Museums
Contemporary Art Museums
Historic House Museums
History Museums
City History Museums/Centers
Science Centers
$5.1 million – $10 million, with additional cuts by:
Botanical Gardens/Arboreta
Art Museums
Regional Art Museums
History Museums
Science Centers
Greater than $10 million, with additional cuts by:
Botanical Gardens/Arboreta
Art Museums
Encyclopedic Art Museums
Regional Art Museums
Contemporary Art Museums
Decorative Arts Museums
Estates or Mansions
History Museums
Natural History Museums
Science Centers
Anthropology
Broader Population Comparison
Broader population sampling collects data from casual visitors and non-visitors in your city or state. When you think of your museum and your local population, there are three main groups of people:
Frequent visitors
Potential Annual Survey of Museum-Goers respondents; typically your repeat visitors and/or members.
Casual visitors
Potential broader population sampling respondent; someone who may visit once a year, or every couple of years.
Non-visitors
Potential broader population sampling respondent; someone who has never visited or hasn’t visited in many years.
By adding on Broader Population Sampling in your area, you can create a more complete picture of who does and doesn’t engage with your museum, as well as their values, attitudes, and behaviors. This can then help you develop a more informed audience engagement strategy to broaden audiences.
About Broader Population Sampling
The Survey: Because we want to ask the same questions of all population segments, we create a survey that is nearly identical to the Annual Survey of Museum-Goers. The main difference is that since we can’t assume respondents have visited your museum, we don’t ask them to assess the visitor experience at your museum. Instead, they are asked about leisure-time activities and more general attitudes towards museums and lifelong learning.
Identifying casual visitors from non-visitors: The survey includes a question asking about visitation at local attractions, including your museum. We use this question to identify your casual visitors and your non-visitors. (This also tells you the other places and organizations you’re competing with for leisure time and educational activities.)
The sample: We purchase the sample from our survey vendor, Alchemer. They do a great job filling samples with a demographic mix that is typically pretty close to the broader population in a state or metro area, including by race and ethnicity and educational attainment.
The geographic area: We can offer this for either an individual metro area or by state. If you are in a small city or rural area, we may have to do it by state, but we’ll discuss this with you and only field the survey if you agree with this decision.
Reporting: Wilkening Consulting will include the broader population results in your reports. For your results spreadsheet, this includes directly comparing your frequent visitors, casual visitors, and non-visitors. On your slide deck results, the broader population results will be visually represented as one of your comps.
Cost: There are two factors that affect the cost–the cost of purchasing the sample itself and the time of Wilkening Consulting staff to extensively customize your reports to include your local broader population comparison. The base fee of $2,000 includes the extra reporting and the sample fee for 250 respondents (this is in addition to your Annual Survey participation fee).
Adding respondents: If you want a sample of more than 250, you can do so for the cost of procuring the sample (our reporting fee doesn’t change). We’ll know in January what it will cost but we estimate $3.50-$4.00 per completed response.
Partnering with other area museums: If multiple museums in a metro area or state wish to field the broader population sampling, the sampling fee can be split among all of them (also enabling you to get a larger, more robust sample). The portion of your fee that covers reporting ($1,000) remains unchanged. It is strongly encouraged that this partnering take place prior to fielding the broader population sample to ensure the possibility of sampling fee-splitting.
Custom questions: We may be able to include the custom questions you select for the Annual Survey of Museum-Goers into your broader population sample. It depends on whether those questions are appropriate for respondents who may have never visited your museum.
2024 Participants
Adena Mansion and Gardens Historic Site (Ohio History Connection)
Albuquerque Museum Foundation Inc
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Anchorage Museum
Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum
Applewood Estate/ Ruth Mott Foundation
Armstrong Air & Space Museum (Ohio History Connection)
Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore Museum of Industry
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)
Bishop Museum
Blanton Museum of Art
Boca Raton Museum of Art
Boston Children’s Museum
Brookfield Zoo Chicago (Chicago Zoological Society)
Buffalo Museum of Science
Burchfield Penney Art Center
Burke Museum
California Academy of Sciences
Campus Martius Museum (Ohio History Connection)
Carnegie Arts Center
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Chandler Museum
Charlotte Museum of History
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
Chicago Children’s Museum
Chicago History Museum
Children’s Museum of Phoenix
Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry
Chrysler Museum of Art
Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Museum Center
Clark Art Institute
Coastal Heritage Society Inc
Columbus Museum of Art
Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens
CuriOdyssey
Currier Museum of Art, The
DC History Center
Delaware Museum of Nature and Science
Denver Art Museum
Denver Botanic Gardens
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
DePaul Art Museum
Dia Beacon
Discovery Museum
Discovery Science Center & Planetarium
Exploration Place
Fairfield Museum and History Center
Fernbank Museum
Field Museum
Flint Institute of Arts
Florida Museum of Natural History
Fort Ancient Earthworks and Nature Preserve (Ohio History Connection)
Fort Meigs Historic Site (Ohio History Connection)
Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
Franklin G. Burroughs – Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia
George Eastman Museum
George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Glensheen Mansion
Grand Rapids Art Museum
Great Circle (Newark Earthworks -Ohio History Connection)
Great Valley Museum
Greeley History Museum
Gregg Museum of Art & Design
Hagley Museum and Library
High Desert Museum
Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens
History Nebraska
Holden Forests & Gardens
Hunter Museum of American Art
IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites
Irving Archives and Museum
James Monroe’s Highland
Japanese American National Museum
Johnson County Museum
Johnston Farm & Indian Agency (Ohio History Connection )
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Kentucky Historical Society
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum
Litchfield Historical Society
Littleton Museum
Long Island Children’s Museum
Longmont Museum
Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
Meadows Museum
Memphis Museum of Science and History
Miami Children’s Museum
Michigan Science Center
Mid-America Science Museum
Milwaukee Public Museum
Minnesota Historical Society
Minnetrista
Mississippi Museum of Art
Missouri Historical Society
MIT Museum
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Monticello (Thomas Jefferson Fdn)
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Museum of Danish America
Museum of Discovery & Science (MODS)
Museum of Early Trades & Crafts
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA)
Museum of Northern Arizona
Museum of the American Revolution
Museum of Us
Museum of Ventura County
Naper Settlement
NASCAR Hall of Fame
National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center
National Gallery of Art
National Museum of Bermuda
National Museum of Wildlife Art
National Susan B Anthony Museum & House
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Newcomb Art Museum
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University
Norman Rockwell Museum
North American Bison Discovery Center (formerly National Buffalo Museum)
North Carolina Museum of Art
Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture
Norton Museum
Office of Historic Alexandria (Historic Alexandria Museums)
Ohio History Center (Ohio History Connection)
Ohio Village (Ohio History Connection)
Old Westbury Gardens
Omaha Children’s Museum
Peabody Essex Museum
Penn Museum
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Reynolda House Museum of American Art
Rhode Island Historical Society
Rochester Museum & Science Center
Roger Tory Peterson Institute
Rollins Museum of Art
San Bernardino County Museum
San Diego History Center
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College
Schoenbrunn Village (Ohio History Connection)
Science Museum Oklahoma
Seattle Children’s Museum
Serpent Mound (Ohio History Connection)
Shiloh Museum of Ozark History
SITE SANTA FE
Skirball Cultural Center
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
South Carolina State Museum
Space Center Houston
Stanley Museum of Art
State Historical Museum of Iowa
Telfair Museums
The Bakken Museum
The Contemporary Jewish Museum
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
The Franklin Institute
The Frick Pittsburgh
The Gamble House Conservancy
The Gardens on Spring Creek
The Henry Ford
The Mini Time Machine
The Museum of Russian Art
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Parthenon
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science
The Phillips Collection
The Ringling
The Shore Line Trolley Museum
The Valentine
The Walters Art Museum
Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest
Toledo Museum of Art
Turtle Bay Exploration Park
U.S. Naval Undersea Museum
United States Botanic Garden
University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Virginia Museum of History & Culture
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Warren G. Harding Presidential Museum (Ohio History Connection)
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
Washington State Historical Society
West Baton Rouge Museum
Wexner Center for the Arts (at the Ohio State University)
Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum
Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library
Witte Museum
Wolfsonian–FIU
WonderLab Museum
Worcester Art Museum
Participant stories
Browse the stories of those who have participated in the Annual Survey of Museum-Goers and learn how they applied the data in practice.
Data Stories
Check out the data stories from previous years’ surveys covering themes from masking in museums to how to spark curiosity among visitors.
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