Romanians like shopping as a free time activity, but are not so much fans of going to the library anymore. Opera and operetta performances do enjoy some increasing popularity, and so do cinemas and theaters, but the numbers are still low, found a recent survey. In rural areas, cultural life is even scarcer than in the cities.

Nearly 14% of Romanians go shopping at the mall monthly but only 1.7% of respondents go to the library to read, according to the recently released 2014 Cultural Consumption Barometer. Going to the mall is one of Romanians’ favorite activities in their free time.

Over 80% of Romanians don’t go to philharmonic concerts while 15.2% say they rarely go. The opera and operetta are in a similar situation. However, the ‘non-consumers’ segment for opera and operetta dropped by about 10% in the past 10 years, reports local Mediafax. This means more people started to go to such cultural events.

A similar trend emerged among theater goers: the number of ‘non-consumers’ declined by some 14% over the last decade. Women go to the theater more often, as well as those aged under 34 and those with a higher level of education.

Festivals are slightly more popular: a little over 8% of the respondents said they go to festivals four times a year while 11.4% go to such an event twice a year.

Those who live in the countryside are at a disadvantage: they have no theaters, cinemas, little to no access to festivals, and in the majority of cases, not even libraries. So there's no surprise cultural life is limited in the countryside.

In rural areas, almost 75% of respondents don’t go to the cinema. Irrespective of residence, 5.7% of general respondents went to the cinema at least once a month.

Meanwhile, 8.8% of men choose to go to the theater every 4-6 months while 5.8% of women go monthly, 5.2% go once every 2-3 months and 5.3% once every 4-6 months.

Libraries seem to be a thing of the past too: over 79% of Romania’s general population didn’t go to libraries to read last year.

What else do Romanians like to do in their free time? Over 8% go on trips at least once a month, while 18.5% prefer to take a walk in the park or other green areas once a week.

The 2014 edition of the barometer was conducted on a sample of 1,260 people.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com