The most visited museums in the world
Despite being the most visited museum worldwide in 2020, the Louvre in Paris, France, experienced a dramatic drop in visitors that year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The renowned museum attracted approximately 2.7 million visitors in 2020, almost seven million fewer than in 2019. Two Chinese institutions - the National Museum of China in Beijing and the Nanjing Museum in Nanjing - placed second and third in the ranking, respectively. In fact, China was the country reporting the highest aggregated attendance at most visited museums in the world that year, followed by the United Kingdom.When looking at the museum attendance in the UK, the nation’s capital, London, played a key role as it is where many of the most visited British museums are based. The majority of these establishments are sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and, in the 2020/2021 financial year, the Tate Gallery Group, Science Museum Group, and the National History Museum were the DCMS sponsored museums in England with the highest number of visitors. From among these institutions, the Tate galleries reported the largest decline in attendance in 2020/2021 due to the pandemic, welcoming 7.5 million fewer visitors compared to the previous year.
