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[Art] helps me understand the times I’m living in. It helps me see other perspectives. It makes me feel less alone. It makes me feel more human.
It connects me more to the rest of humanity.

The Arts Debate, Arts Council England 2007

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Average spend per head

What does this mean?

The mean income generated per person attending an event, series or year’s programme.

This should be calculated as:

Total gross income generated in the given period / Total footfall during the given period.

How did we get this definition?

A basic measure of the economic activity of a facility’s users, this should be found by working out:

The total gross income generated in a given period / Total footfall during that given period

It is recommended that gross income be used here since this is likely to give the widest possible measure of the money flowing into the organisation, and thus ignores any deductions made for commissions, booking fees or VAT. And through the same logic, the use of total footfall is proposed since this would reflect the total number of people passing through a facility rather than just the number of people engaging in a specific and defined activity (such as attending an event, buying a ticket or purchasing a drink).

Related and similar definitions

The extension of the logic advanced above is that figures for gross income used in the calculation should relate to all income generated in an arts facility as a result of someone passing through it. Hence, for the period under consideration, total gross income should include:

All core income PLUS all ancillary income.

When to use

As part of an assessment of an organisation's economic impact.