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 available for 2024.
By Museum Type
In 2024, we will be able to provide 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 will be able to provide 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 will be able to provide 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.
2023 Participants
Alabama Department of Archives and History (Museum of Alabama)
Applewood (Ruth Mott Foundation)
Arab American National Museum
Armstrong Air & Space Museum (Ohio History Connection)
Aurora History Museum & Historic Sites
Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens
Berkshire Museum
Bishop Museum
Blanton Museum of Art
Boscobel House and Gardens
Brandywine Museum of Art
Brookfield Zoo (Chicago Zoological Society)
Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave
Bullock Texas State History Museum
Burchfield Penney Art Center
Burke Museum
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Chandler Museum
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
Chicago Children’s Museum
Chicago History Museum
Chrysler Museum of Art
Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati Museum Center
Clark Art Institute
Clyfford Still Museum
Colonial Williamsburg
Columbus Museum of Art
Connecticut Historical Society
Connecticut Landmarks
Connecticut Science Center
Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo
Conner Prairie
Cranbrook Art Museum
Creative Discovery Museum
Crystal Bridges Museum of Art
Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens
CuriOdyssey
Dallas Museum of Art
Dayton Art Institute
DC History Center
Denver Art Museum
Denver Botanic Gardens
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Denver Zoo
Descanso Gardens
Detroit Historical Society
Discovery Museum
Discovery Place
Dumbarton House Museum
Dumbarton Oaks
Dunn Museum
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum
Eli Whitney Museum
Erie Canal Museum
Exploration Place
Exploratorium
Farnsworth Art Museum
Fernbank Museum
Field Museum
Filoli Center
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Flint Institute of Arts
Florence Griswold Museum
Florida Museum of Natural History
Fort Laurens Museum
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
Frye Art Museum
Genesee Country Village & Museum
George Eastman Museum
George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Grand Rapids Public Museum
Greeley History Museum
Gregg Museum of Art & Design
Gunston Hall
Haggin Museum
Heritage Museums & Gardens
Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses
High Desert Museum
Historic BK house & Gardens
Historic Deerfield
Historic London Town and Gardens
History Nebraska
Honolulu Museum of Art
Hunter Museum of American Art
Illinois State Museum
Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites
International Center of Photography
James A. Michener Art Museum
James Madison’s Montpelier
Jamestown Settlement and American Revolution Museum
Japanese American National Museum
Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center
Kentucky Historical Society
KidsPlay Children’s Museum
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
Linn County Historical Society
Litchfield Historical Society
Littleton Museum
Longmont Museum
Lyman Allyn Art Museum
Macculloch Hall Historical Museum
Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College
Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center
Mattatuck Museum
MCA Denver
McKissick Museum
Meadow Brook Hall
Meadows Museum
Mercer Museum
Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University
Mid-America Science Museum
Midland Center for the Arts
Minnesota Historical Society
Minnetrista
Mississippi Museum of Art
Missouri Historical Society
Montana Historical Society
Monticello
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Museum of Discovery & Science
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, St Petersburg
Museum of Science & History
Museum of Science and Industry
Museum of the American Revolution
Museum of the Rockies
Mutter Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum
Naper Settlement
NASCAR Hall of Fame
National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center
National Gallery of Art
National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico/GulfQuest
National Museum of Bermuda
National Museum of the Pacific War
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
NC Museum of Dolls, Toys & Miniatures
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
New Britain Museum of American Art
New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, ltd
Newport Historical Society
Norman Rockwell Museum
Norton Museum of Art
Office of Historic Alexandria
Office of Hisotric Resources
Ohio History Center
Ohio River Museum
Ohio Village
Omaha Children’s Museum
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History
Parrish Art Museum
Pavek Museum
Peabody Essex Museum
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Penn Museum
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Perot Museum of Nature and Science
Phoenix Art Museum
Princeton University Art Museum
Reynolda House Museum of American Art
Rhode Island Historical Society
Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm
Roger Tory Peterson Institute
San Bernardino County Museum
San Diego History Center
San Luis Obispo Museum of Art
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Science Museum of Virginia
Science Museum Oklahoma
Sciencenter
Seattle Children’s Museum
Shaker Historical Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
South Bend Museum of Art
South Carolina State Museum
Space Center Houston
Springfield Museum of Art
Springfield Museums
Stamford Museum & Nature Center
State Historical Museum of Iowa
Stepping Stones Museum for Children
Strawberry Banke Museum
Tennessee State Museum
The Buffalo History Museum
The Contemporary Jewish Museum
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
The Florida Aquarium
The Frick Pittsburgh
The Gamble House Conservancy
The Henry Ford Museum
The Historic New Orleans Collection
The Museum of Russian Art
The New England Carousel Museum
The Newark Museum of Art
The Phillips Collection
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
The Tech Interactive
The Valentine
The Walters Art Museum
The Wolfsonian, FIU
University of Arizona 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
Walker Art Center
Warren G. Hardin Presidential Museum
Weisman Art Museum
Wenham Museum
West Baton Rouge Museum
Wheelwright Museum
Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Witte Museum
WonderLab Museum of Science, Health, and Technology
Worcester Art Museum
Yakima Valley 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.
Ready to sign up?
Complete the form to sign up or get in touch with Wilkening Consulting for more information.