Private expenditure on heritage (Percentage)

Definition

Share of funding from private source in the preservation, protection and conservation of cultural and/or natural heritage expressed as a percentage of total heritage expenditure for a given year.

Data source

Household expenditure on culture is collected through general consumption expenditure surveys or dedicated cultural participation and consumption surveys.

Data on other private sources of funding for heritage such (e.g. corporate sponsorship and philanthropy; private donations) are rarely collected systematically and would often require additional surveys proceeded by significant analytical, preparatory and advocacy work.

International sources may be available through governmental financial systems when they are recorded on-budget, and off-budget international funding may sometimes be available through governmental aid management systems, although rarely with the disaggregation needed (ex. For heritage only). Data sources for international funding, such as the Official Development Aid data from the OECD-DAC database may be used as a complement, but often present problems of compatibility with other sources, such as government records.

Source definition

UNESCO Institute for statistics

Calculation method

The indicator is calculated by dividing total private funding in heritage by total (public and private) heritage expenditure of a country in a given year and multiply the results by 100.

Data required

Private funding on heritage from households, other private sources such as donations, sponsorship or international sources.

Interpretation

A higher value would signify a greater commitment from donors (national or international) to protecting national heritage in a given country. For international, it could also be potentially a greater degree of aid dependency for governments in terms of heritage protection.

Limitations

In general, the availability of private expenditure data for heritage is significantly lower compared to public expenditure so that it will take several years, capacity building, and financial investment in order to increase coverage to an acceptable level.

This indicator comprises only private investments in heritage. It does not measure non-monetary factors such as national regulations or national/local policies for the preservation, protection and conservation of national cultural and/or natural heritage. These policies could take the form of fiscal incentives such as tax benefits for donations or sponsorship.

Purpose

This indicator measures the share of private expenditure dedicated to the preservation, protection and conservation of cultural and/or natural heritage compared to total (public and private) expenditure on heritage over time. To monitor change over time of private entities efforts for the protection and safeguard of cultural and/or natural heritage compared to governmental efforts.

Types of disaggregation

By type of heritage (cultural, natural)