The line graph illustrates the changes in the number of people visiting five different categories of museums in the UK, including art, science, culture, natural history and history, over a twenty-year span from 1999 to 2019.
Museums featuring art, science and natural history witnessed steady increase in their visitors in this period, while their growth rate varied. Visitors to art museums rose dramatically from around 100 thousand to 150 thousand, with the same increase of 50% as that of science museums which surged from 70 thousand to 130 thousand. In contrast, a slower rise was evident in the figure of natural history museums, slightly climbing from 50 thousand to roughly 60 thousand.
Aside from the upward movement, museums characterized by culture and history underwent striking decline in their visitors. While history museums stood at about 80 thousand in 1999, 10 thousand higher than science museums, fewer and fewer people visited them, ending at around 68 thousand in 2019. The same trend was seen in history museums, decreasing from 60 thousand to 40 thousand, the smallest visitor population among all categories.
Overall, it is clear that from 1999 to 2019 people interested in art, science and natural history museums continued to grow, with the majority visiting art museums, while culture and history museums gradually lost their audience.