This report presents the findings from a nationally representative survey of over 10,000 UK adults. It supported the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) with strategic planning for the 2019-2024 period.

Key findings:

The importance of heritage

The two most popular reasons why heritage matters to people are that:

• it helps them to learn from the past (62%)
• it preserves important things (61%)

The most engaged groups

The groups that are the most engaged in heritage are older people, ABC1s, those from a white ethnic background and women.

Notably, 45% of those aged 65 and over say heritage matters to a large/very large extent in comparison to just 14% of 16-24 year olds.

The most important aspects of heritage

The aspects of heritage with the highest levels of support are:

• museums/libraries/archives (83%)
• historic buildings/monuments (82%)
• land/natural heritage (81%)

Issues for heritage to address:

• environmental sustainability
• economic growth
• community development
• social inclusion