Study on the youngsters’ attitude towards the cultural heritage sites

Youngsters have long been ignored by the public policies; however, in the context of population ageing and of their increasingly relevant role in the contemporary world, they have become an important population segment at European and international level.

The matter of the youth is related to the cultural and creative sectors, as they are important actors in the production and distribution of music, film, television, in the new technologies and communication media.

This study is based on a survey conducted by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy, as operator, in the period 22 August-11 November 2018, on a nationwide-representative sample, which included the population aged between 14 and 18. The objectives of the study were to identify the degree of knowledge and understanding of the cultural heritage and the youngsters’ attitude towards culture, on age categories.

The cultural heritage is in the top of activities preferred by youngsters; visiting museums or art galleries, historical monuments or archaeological sites is the occasional activity with the highest percentage of attendance among teenagers. Even though a part of the teenagers were not very familiar with the concept of cultural heritage, the level of heritage sites-visiting practices is relatively high, whether we consider the national or foreign sites. More than half of the teenagers have participated at least once in volunteering activities and almost two thirds of them are willing to get involved as volunteers in cultural heritage-related activities.