The line graph illustrates attendance figures, in thousands, for five distinct categories of museums in the UK over a 20-year period spanning from 1999 to 2019.
Overall, visitor numbers for most museum types trended predominantly upwards, with History and Culture museums being the sole exceptions. Throughout the entire timeframe, Art museums consistently maintained their lead as the most popular attraction.
In the starting year, 1999, Art museums recorded the highest attendance at approximately 100,000 visitors. Following this, History and Science museums attracted a substantial number of visitors, at around 80,000 and 70,000 respectively. The least visited categories at this time were Culture and Natural History museums, which registered figures of about 60,000 and 50,000.
Over the following two decades, Art museum attendance continued to climb, rising from 100,000 to 150,000. A more dramatic increase was observed in Science museums, where visitor numbers surged from 70,000 to 130,000, a trend which saw it surpass History museums in popularity by 2009. In stark contrast, both History and Culture museums experienced a decline, with their figures falling to approximately 65,000 and 45,000 respectively by 2019. Natural History museums were the only other category to see growth, albeit a slight one, from 50,000 to 60,000 visitors.