Statistics released by the European statistical agency Eurostat has revealed that the Irish are the Union’s most frequent cinema-goers, with over four visits per year, compared to the EU average of just under two. From an article in the Hollywood Reporter:

The Irish are Europe’s keenest cinemagoers, hitting the theater an average of 4.2 times a year, compared with the European Union average of 1.9.

The figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat, published Monday, reveal that other eager cinemagoers included the French (3.0), the Spanish (2.8) and Luxembourgers (2.7), while the least frequent attendees were the Romanians (0.1), Bulgarians (0.3) and Slovakians (0.6).

In the past year, 51% of EU citizens said they had been to the cinema at least once, though this figure stood at 71% in Sweden, 69% in Denmark and 66% in Ireland. When broken down by age, the figures showed the dominance of youth: 82% of 15- to 24-year-olds had been to the cinema at least once versus 66% of 25- to 39-year-olds, 53% of 40- to 54-year-olds and 24% of those over 55.

The report can be found here.  However, if non-EU countries had been taken into consideration Iceland might have nudged out Ireland, as pan-European statistics from Screen Digest tend to confirm the smaller of the two north Atlantic islands as the the number one home of cinema buffs.

According to the report, the most internationalist viewers seem to live in Sweden and Denmark, where 73 and 74 per cent respectively reported having seen a ‘foreign language’ film or television programme in the past year – though I assume that they mean non-English, or the rate would have been closer to 100 per cent.