thrive’s IMPACT End of Year Report 2024-25

19 August 2026

We are delighted to present the results of thrive’s IMPACT research for 2024-2025.

This post-visit survey has let us see for the first time who audiences are in Northern Ireland, why they attend, how they behave and how they feel afterwards.

This latest report includes data from the past 12 months, in which we heard from 2,805 audience members. A huge variety of arts organisations helped us collect the data from all across the country and a variety of art forms.

Some of the main findings

1. Audiences engage frequently, regardless of demographics, children at home, earnings, or disability.

2. Age impacts attendance. Most IMPACT audiences continue to be between the ages of 40 and 74. When we look at this by art form, young people do engage, but in lots of different places. Theatre audiences are more likely to be 60 and older.

3. Last year, 13% of responses were from d/Deaf and disabled audiences. This year, that number has fallen slightly to 10%.

4. Cost of living affects the majority of respondents. 34% are cutting back on ancillary spend, 26% are going to things less often and 25% are spending less on the experiences themselves. However, 34% say cost of living doesn’t have an impact on their arts and culture experiences. These people are more likely to be older (age 65+), male, non-disabled, and on higher or significantly higher earnings.

Click here to read the full report.