A total of 1,973 citizens of Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, all over the age of 18, have been interviewed for the study. Twenty-nine percent said they had a strong love of reading, and another 28 percent said they were quite fond of reading. Half of them read every day. But reading in Basque is not a common trend: among those who say they know Basque and read books, only 28% read books in Basque very often; not three out of ten. However, Spanish books are often read by 84% of these Basque readers.

“People recognize the high value of culture,” said Bingen Zupiria, Basque Government Minister of Culture, during the presentation of the study. In fact, 57% of respondents say that culture is a priority issue and 64% believe it deserves more support. The other side of the coin belongs to the creators: “If you have to put priority anywhere, you have to put it on the creators.” He stressed the need for pedagogy so that “everyone” remembers that creators deserve compensation.

In addition to reading, the study has addressed other areas: 52% of those who have responded to the Sociometer are very music lovers and 29% are quite music lovers. Almost seven out of ten listen to music every day, and almost half use it on TV or radio for this purpose. Of those who know Basque, 53% listen to music in Basque, while 78% of these Basques often listen to music in Spanish.

Cinematography has left other results, more “modest”: 43% say they are very film addicts and 36% say they are “quite” film addicts. Seven out of ten watch movies on TV, and 40% of those who haven’t been to a movie theater in the last year. At a time when Gran or Errementari have filled the cinemas, 58% of those surveyed have not seen a film in Basque in the last twelve months.

Only 17% of those surveyed in the performing arts have been “very enthusiastic”. The minority has been in a theatre for the past year, with 72 per cent of respondents indicating that they have not been in a theatre at all in 12 months. Language also influences this area: 58% of those who know Basque have not seen a single work in Basque in the last year.

Finally, the population’s interest in bertsolarismo has not yielded better data: only 12% of those who know Basque are very bertsolaris and 21% are “moderately” bertsolaris. 22% of those who live in Basque are very fond of it and 35% are quite fond of it. In the last year, there have been 19% of those who speak Basque in a verse session and 9% in half a dozen.

15% of those surveyed are very fond of museums, compared to 28% of those quite fond of museums. The Guggenheim is the most visited museum by participants in the Sociometer, but half of those surveyed have not been in any museum in the past year.