Malta among the highest in EU cross-cultural contacts

Cross-cultural contacts were examined in a Eurobarometer public opinion survey that shows 24% of Maltese persons over the age of 15 had travelled abroad at least three times in the past year.

Another 37% have a member of their family living in an EU country, 72% watch TV programmes or movies in a foreign language, 56% read foreign language newspapers and 32% read books in their original language.

Only 5% said that they had no cross-cultural contacts mentioned in the survey.

In the EU27 in 2007, 27% of persons aged 15 years and over had travelled abroad at least three times in the past three years, 22% had family members living in another European country and 15% in a non European country, 19% often watched television or movies in foreign languages, 9% read foreign-language newspapers and 7% read foreign books in their original language. On the other hand, a quarter (27%) of the respondents said they had none of the cross-cultural contacts mentioned in the survey.

The proportion of cross-cultural contacts varied considerably among Member States, with Luxembourg on top for watching television or movies (80%), reading books (49%) and newspapers (71%) in a foreign language.

Apart from Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Malta and the Netherlands registered the lowest percentage of respondents stating that they had none of the cross-cultural contacts mentioned.

Highest shares of art students in the United Kingdom and Ireland

The place of culture in European society can be seen from different angles, such as the number of people working as writers or artists, the percentage of tertiary students studying arts or the size of external trade in cultural goods.

In 2009, in the EU27, 1.5 million people worked as writers or artists, equivalent to 0.7% of total employment. The highest numbers were recorded in Germany (330,000), the United Kingdom (200,000), France (180,000), Italy (120,000), the Netherlands (110,000) and Spain (100,000). Among the Member States, the share of writers or artists in total employment varied from 0.1% in Romania to 1.5% in Finland and Sweden.

During the academic year 2007/2008, students studying arts in Malta accounted for 2.8% of all tertiary students as opposed to the 3.8% EU27 average.

The United Kingdom (6.8%), Ireland (6.6%), Finland (5.6%) and Cyprus (5.5%) recorded the highest shares of tertiary students in arts.

Cultural goods account for a larger share of EU exports than imports. In 2010, 0.6% of EU27 exports of goods and 0.4% of EU27 imports with the rest of the world were cultural goods.

In Malta however exports of cultural good in 2010 were 0.3% while imports of cultural goods were 0.4%.

The United Kingdom (1.8%), Estonia (0.7%), France, Cyprus, Latvia and Austria (all 0.6%) had the highest shares of cultural goods in their total exports, and Austria (0.9%), Ireland and the United Kingdom (both 0.8%), Greece and Cyprus (both 0.7%) the largest shares in total imports.

Prices for books increased less than the average in the last five years

As regards the prices of cultural goods and services (museums, concerts etc.) in the EU27, prices for newspapers (+17.5%) and cultural services (+13.3%) increased more than the overall index (+11.9%) between 2005 and 2010, while prices for books (+6.5%) rose less.

In Malta the prices of cultural goods and services fell by 7.5% and the prices of books fell by 7.8% while the prices of newspapers increased by 20.1%, higher than the overall index of 12.4%.