The UK Ranks as the Second Most Artistic Country in Europe

According to Index Digital, the UK is the second most artistic country in Europe, with the Netherlands coming in at first place.

A study by creative resource Design Bundles, looked at a selection of European countries to reveal which could lay claim to being the most artistic.  

The research analysed five different factors: the percentage of government spending on cultural services, the number of art schools, colleges and universities, the number of popular museums, the number of students studying art, and the total value of cultural exports. 

The countries received a score out of 10 on each factor, adding up to a total score out of 50, with first place being taken by the Netherlands, which scored 29.4 out of 50, just a slight lead over the second-placed UK, which totaled 28.3 points.  

The UK ranks as the second most artistic country in Europe as a result of its maximum index score of 10 points in the cultural exports category. Annually €307 worth of cultural goods and services are exported for every person living in the UK.  

A similarly high score of nine points was attained for the amount of top museum visitations thanks to the likes of the British Museum and the Tate Modern which were 2019’s third and fourth most visited museums in Europe. 

The study found that the UK was joint last, along with Ireland, out of the ten countries for Government funding of cultural services.

Latvia, despite having a small population of just under two million people, snaps up third place. This was thanks to the high amount of government spending on cultural services at 1% of total GDP in the country. This is accompanied by a large concentration of seven art educational institutions in just the capital Riga, which is populated by approximately 600,000 people.