The British Museum received 6.5 million visitors in 2024, its highest number since 2015, The Art Newspaper's annual visitor figure report has revealed. The total places it third in our survey—the full version of which will be published in April—behind the Musée du Louvre and the Vatican Museums.
Like most other museums, the British Museum’s visitor numbers plummeted in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. It welcomed just 1.3 million people that year and in 2021, then slowly built back attendance in 2022 and 2023.
The 2024 figure is 11% more than in 2023, and over 4% more than in 2019—the last year before the impact of the pandemic was felt. The last time that visits topped 6.8 million was in 2015.
The museum attributed the increase to an uptick in international visitors and the popularity of the temporary exhibitions including Legion: life in the Roman army and Michelangelo: the last decades. A spokesperson said: "Our visitors are at the heart of everything we do, it means a lot to all of us at the British Museum to see so many people coming through our doors to see the incredible collection we have on display."
Visitors also flooded to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, which had its busiest year on record with 506,000 visitors—up 25% on 2023 and 45% on 2019. The museum’s director, Luke Syson, said: “Fundamentally I think this is about more adventurous and inclusive programming and the greater prominence of new acquisitions in our galleries.
“As a result, our audience has grown precisely because it is more diverse. We are attracting people who didn't come and enhancing the experience of the museum for those who already love us.”
This success, however, was not replicated across the UK. Visitor numbers at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the National Gallery and the Royal Academy are still stubbornly down, coming in at 25%, 32%, 47% and 50% below 2019 figures respectively. This is particularly noticeable now that most museums in other regions have reached their pre-Covid numbers, or even higher.
The full version of The Art Newspaper's visitor figure report 2024 will be published in our April issue.