Which country in Europe has the most choir singers?

Which country in Europe has the most choir singers?

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norman lebrecht

August 04, 2017

A piece of research by the EU claims there are 37 million choral singers in the Union.

That’s fairly meaningless.

What’s more interesting is where you find the highest concentration.

In the Baltic states? Germany? France?

No. It’s Austria in first place with 11 percent of the population engaged in choral singing. Second is the Netherlands with 10.7 percent and third Slovenia with 8.3%

At the bottom of the pile are Poland (2.3%), Spain (2.4%) and Denmark (2.6%).

Portugal was too low to be measured.

More here.

Comments

  • Sue says:

    “The hills are alive with the sound of music”.

  • Una says:

    What about Britain? Still in the EU with its Halle, Bach, Leeds Phil and Festival, Huddersfield, Birmingham, SNO, and so on. 11% of Austria will still be much lower in numbers, and none of my Austrian family even sing, let alone belong to a choir. Hey, ho!

    • Max Grimm says:

      From the link provided in the thread-starter…
      United Kingdom:
      9% of the population has sung in the last 12 months
      5.583.754 people have sung in the last 12 months
      3,3% of the population in England has sung to an audience or rehearsed for a
      performance (excluding karaoke) in the previous 12 months as part of a group or club
      1.426.500 choral singers in England
      2% Northern Ireland
      2.047.376 people sing in group.
      The Cathedrals of the Church of England count 200 choirs or 2110 choristers.
      37.500 ensembles in the United Kingdom is our estimation.

      Austria:
      12% of the population has sung in the last 12 months
      1.009.757 people have sung in the last 12 months
      11%18 of the population “sing often with others”
      (The question covers the fact of singing together, and is therefore larger than “pure” choral singing. But we choose to use it, since it reflects a social activity of sharing music through singing).
      925.610 people sing often with others
      Number of ensembles
      2383 choirs claimed by two organisations Chorverband Österreich and Österreichischer Arbeitersängerbund.
      397 ensembles is the evidence on children and youth choirs for the year 2012.
      28.200 ensembles is our estimation, based on the average size of an ensemble from our survey.

      I wouldn’t use this survey for comparative analyses however, as it appears that years/questions/methods of collecting data varied noticeably in cases.

  • Max Grimm says:

    From the link provided in the thread-starter…
    United Kingdom:
    9% of the population has sung in the last 12 months
    5.583.754 people have sung in the last 12 months
    3,3% of the population in England has sung to an audience or rehearsed for a
    performance (excluding karaoke) in the previous 12 months as part of a group or club
    1.426.500 choral singers in England
    2% Northern Ireland
    2.047.376 people sing in group.
    The Cathedrals of the Church of England count 200 choirs or 2110 choristers.
    37.500 ensembles in the United Kingdom is our estimation.

    Austria:
    12% of the population has sung in the last 12 months
    1.009.757 people have sung in the last 12 months
    11%18 of the population “sing often with others”
    (The question covers the fact of singing together, and is therefore larger than “pure” choral singing. But we choose to use it, since it reflects a social activity of sharing music through singing).
    925.610 people sing often with others
    Number of ensembles
    2383 choirs claimed by two organisations Chorverband Österreich and Österreichischer Arbeitersängerbund.
    397 ensembles is the evidence on children and youth choirs for the year 2012.
    28.200 ensembles is our estimation, based on the average size of an ensemble from our survey.

    I wouldn’t use this survey for comparative analyses however, as it appears that years/questions/methods of collecting data varied noticeably in cases.

  • Isabelle says:

    4 th place is quite good too but we are not in europe so europe might not want to take notice of little switzerland’s power voices 😉

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