Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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FINANCIAL DATA

The 2003-04 ABS Survey of Museums found that the total income in the 2003-04 financial year for the 1,329 museums establishments in Australia was $919.4m. About two-thirds (68%) of this income was provided by government, with the bulk of the balance made up by fundraising ($89.0m) and admissions ($55.9m).

Wages and salaries accounted for $320.4m of museum expenses in 2003-04, which was two fifths (40%) of total outgoings. Other expenses ($489.9m) made up the remaining 60% of museum costs.

8.5 MUSEUM ESTABLISHMENTS, Income and expenses - 2003-04
			OTHER MUSEUMS
		Art galleries	Social history museums	Historic properties/sites	Natural, science and other museums	Total
		$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
Income
	Government funding	200.4	193.0	47.9	186.7	628.0
	Admissions income	8.8	20.2	18.1	8.9	55.9
	Fund raising	62.0	12.5	6.8	7.7	89.0
	Other income	53.7	33.7	24.6	34.3	146.5
	Total income	324.9	259.4	97.5	237.6	919.4
Expenses
	Wages and salaries	99.1	91.5	39.6	90.1	320.4
	Other expenses	166.4	138.3	41.0	144.2	489.9
	Total expenses	265.5	229.7	80.6	234.4	810.3
Source: ABS, Museums, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 8560.0).

A more recent data collection which focuses solely on government funding for cultural activities, found that the Australian Government provided $47.2m to Art galleries and a further $209.5m to Other museums in 2006-07. State and territory governments contributed a total of $498.2m to Art galleries and Other museums. While local governments also provide considerable cultural funding, there is no recent data available on the specific amounts committed to museums.

It should be noted that the government funding collection adopted a broader definition of art galleries and other museums, therefore its data are not directly comparable to those obtained from the Survey of Museums.

8.6 CULTURAL FUNDING BY GOVERNMENT, Museums - 2006-07
	Australian Government	State and Territory Governments	Total
	$m	$m	$m
Art galleries	47.2	187.4	234.6
Other museums	209.5	310.7	520.2
Total	256.6	498.2	754.8
Source: ABS, Cultural Funding by Government, Australia, 2006-07 (cat. no. 4183.0).

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