New York, London lead cities worldwide in cultural offerings

New York and London are among the top major international cities in terms of cultural offerings, according to a new study. The results are part of a recently published survey titled the World Cities Culture Report, created by the office of the mayor of London.

While the report doesn’t rank the cities, it shows that New York and London lead the pack in creative fields. The study only considered 12 cities -- New York, London, Berlin, Tokyo, Paris, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Mumbai, Johannesburg, Singapore, Istanbul and Sydney.

Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, wrote that the report “makes clear that we recognise how important culture is to our success -- culture is what makes each of us unique and gives us our distinct flavour.” Data for the report came from BOP Consulting, a London firm that focuses on the cultural and creative sectors.

In the visual arts, London came out on top with 173 museums. Berlin has 158 museums while New York has 137. The British capital came in second in terms of the number of art galleries with 857, compared with Paris, which has 1,046.

For the performing arts, New York stands above other cities with a little more than 43,000 theater performances per year, compared with London’s approximately 32,500. The study estimates that New York has 28.1 million theater admissions per year, versus London’s 14.2 million.

New York is also tops in the annual number of dance and music performances.

The report, which is available free to download, also provides statistics in the literary world, night life and film-going culture.

The release of the report coincides with the Summer Olympics in London, which will run through Aug. 12. The Cultural Oympiad, which is running in parallel with the games, is a city-wide festival that includes concerts, art shows and theater performances.

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