Data story · Open data · 2026
Who’s in the seats?
Who goes to theatre, opera and dance in the Netherlands, and who is missing.
TYPESelf-initiated data story
SCOPEData analysis, visualisation, interactive seat map, advice for venues
DATACBS and Boekmanstichting, VTO 2024
TOOLSPython, HTML/JavaScript, TouchDesigner
The theatre as a chart
If the Netherlands were
a 100-seat theatre,
50 seats would be filled.
Each seat is 1% of people aged 6 and over who saw theatre, a musical, opera, dance or cabaret in 2024.
01 — The question
I’m in the audience almost every week.
Who isn’t sitting next to me?
Cultural institutions talk about “new audiences”. Before designing anything for them, I wanted to see the numbers: who goes to live performance in the Netherlands today, and where the gaps are widest.
02 — The big picture, 2024
50%
saw theatre, a musical, opera, dance or cabaret
67%
went to any live performance, music included
15%
went to a classical music concert
Half the country goes. The interesting part is which half.
People aged 6+ · Boekmanstichting, Cultuurparticipatie in cijfers (VTO 2024), CBS
03 — After the pandemic
Almost back
to before
Attendance of theatre, musicals, opera, dance and cabaret nearly halved in 2020. By 2024 it was close to 2018 again.
Scenic performing arts, people aged 6+ · VTO 2024, table 3
52%2018
28%2020 · COVID
41%2022
50%2024
04 — Gap one: age
Teenagers are the ones
who didn’t come back
6–1168%
12–1943%
20–3453%
35–4952%
50–6451%
65+43%
58% → 43%
12–19-year-olds in 2018 versus 2024: the only age group not yet back to pre-COVID levels.
Scenic performing arts by age, 2024 · Boekmanstichting, VTO 2024, table 3
05 — The empty seats
Fifteen teenage seats
emptied since 2018
Of every 100 people aged 12–19, 58 went in 2018. In 2024 it was 43. Every other age group is close to its pre-pandemic level.
- went in 2024 (43)
- went in 2018, not in 2024 (15)
- didn’t go (42)
06 — Gap two: education
The widest gap:
almost twice the seats
34%
Primary, vmbo, vso
45%
Havo, vwo, mbo
63%
Hbo, wo
Scenic performing arts by highest education, 2024 · VTO 2024, table 3
07 — Gap three: where you live
City or countryside:
smaller than I expected
Theatre, opera, dance, cabaret
53%
urban
44%
not urban
Classical concerts
20%
urban
14%
not urban
Place matters, but less than age or education. The barrier looks more like “is this for me?” than “is it near me?”
2024, by address density · VTO 2024, table 3 and p. 34
08 — What I’d design next
Three opportunities for venues
For 12–19
Go with friends, not with school
A group ticket and a short, social pre-show built for teenagers who stopped coming after 2020.
For first-timers
Lower the “is this for me?” barrier
A plain-language guide: the story in two minutes, what to wear, how long it lasts.
For venues
An audience dashboard
Compare a venue’s own ticket data with these national figures, to see who is missing.
09 — Practical advice
Six things a venue
could start next season
- 1
Know your seats
Ask age group and postcode at checkout (optional); compare with these figures each season.
- 2
Group tickets for teens
A friends ticket for 12–19 that teenagers book themselves, not only via school.
- 3
Go where they scroll
Short backstage videos on TikTok and Instagram, made with young performers.
- 4
Write for first-timers
Story in three sentences, running time, cheapest price and what to wear on every page.
- 5
Cheapest seat first
Lead with the lowest price, to lower the “is this for me?” barrier.
- 6
Test with non-visitors
Watch five people who have never been try to book a ticket on your site.
My recommendations, based on the data
10 — Explore it yourself
The interactive
theatre
Press play and watch nine years of visits fill and empty the seats.
Switch genres on and off.
Pick any age, education or place to see its own 100-seat theatre.
11 — Method and source
Where the numbers
come from
Boekmanstichting, Cultuurparticipatie in cijfers, report on the CBS Vrijetijdsomnibus 2024 (published March 2026). 3,608 respondents, people aged 6 and over, fieldwork October 2024 to March 2025.
Limits I kept in mind. “Scenic performing arts” groups theatre, musicals, opera, dance and cabaret together. Opera and ballet alone aren’t given as a single number in the text.
“Urban” is based on address density, not on Amsterdam or the Randstad.
Next step. An interactive installation of the seat map in TouchDesigner, the tool I used for MAP, where visitors filter by age and education and watch the seats fill.
Let’s connect: verakarulina1@gmail.com