Museum attendance on the rise

Text Mark Taylor
Photo Andrei Chertkov

According to data released by Statistics Estonia, there were nearly 2.5 million museum visits in Estonia in 2022. Although Museum attendance has increased compared with the previous years, it is still below pre-pandemic levels.

In 2022, there were 170 museums in Estonia on a total of 227 museum sites. The most common types of museum were place museums (85), thematic museums (67), and archaeology and history museums (41).

“The highest attendance was registered by thematic museums and archaeology and history museums. Compared with 2021, thematic museums and archaeology and history museums saw the biggest rise in the number of visits. Among children aged under 9, the most popular types of museum were thematic museums and science and technology museums. Attendance by this age group was the lowest in art museums and natural history museums,” said Eveli Voolens, the social statistics team lead at Statistics Estonia ” 

The largest number of museums are located in Harjumaa (71), including 53 museums in Tallinn itself. “As expected, attendance was the highest in the museums in Harjumaa and Tallinn. The most popular museums in Tallinn were the Seaplane Harbour, Kumu Art Museum, and Kiek in de Kök. In Estonia as a whole, the biggest number of visits were made to AHHAA Science Centre, the Seaplane Harbour, and Kumu Art Museum,” said Voolens.

She noted that, while Harjumaa (including Tallinn) had the highest number of museums in Estonia, museum attendance per thousand inhabitants was highest in Saare and Lääne counties. “In both counties, there are an average of 3–4 museum visits per inhabitant made in a year,” explained Voolens.

The number of foreign tourists who visit museums is also on the rise. Museum attendance by foreign tourists was slightly below 240,000 in 2021, whereas in 2022 there were  over 670,000 museum visits made by foreign tourists in Estonia. Foreign tourists represented 27 per cent of all museum visitors.

To learn more about this and similar topics
Ahhaa Science Centre Museum Museum Attendance Museums in Estonia Museums in Tallinn Museums in Tartu Seaplane Harbour University of Tartu Natural History Museum