German Museums Rebound with 81.4 Million Visits in 2022

The museums participating in the survey reported a total of 81,372,077 visits for the year 2022. This is approximately twice as many as in 2021 but still a good quarter less than the pre-pandemic level recorded in 2019. Of the 7,076 museums contacted, more than half (4,268) reported their visitor numbers to the Institute for Museum Research. 

The results of the comprehensive statistical survey for 2022 illustrate the varying trends in visitor numbers among different federal states. While museums in Saxony-Anhalt recorded only a 15% decrease in visits compared to 2019, the visitor numbers for museums in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (-47%) and Saarland (-43%) were significantly below the pre-pandemic levels.

Exhibition centers, which showcase exhibitions without possessing their own collections, have recovered even more strongly from the pandemic crisis. In 2022, they recorded a particularly strong increase with a total of 4,887,583 visits, marking a significant rise compared to the previous year (+14.6%) and trailing only ten percentage points behind the pre-COVID level in 2019. Of the 509 institutions contacted, 318 (62.5%) reported their visitor numbers to the Institute for Museum Research.

Both museums and exhibition centers were able to significantly increase their exhibition activities compared to the previous year. Museums reported a total of 6,233 exhibitions for 2022, a quarter more than the previous year. The 1,614 exhibitions reported by exhibition centers almost reached the same level as before the pandemic.

Main Image :Institut für Museumsforschung © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Institut für Museumsforschung / David von Becker