Since going free in 2001, the Museum has welcomed an average of 2.5 million visitors a year.
The Museum attracts over 300,000 pre-booked school children each year - more than any comparable attraction in the UK and more than the Natural History Museum and the British Museum combined.
45% of Londoners have visited the Museum in the last 5 years.
The majority of visitors (53 per cent) come as part of a family group, i.e. a combination of adults and children.
Science Museum visitor-base has a 50:50 gender split.
Over a third (36 per cent) of all our visitors are children (aged 16 years or under).
Three quarters of all visitors to the Science Museum are from the UK. Of these, 64 per cent are from London and the Southeast.
84 percent of visitors are of the demographic classification ABC1.
62 per cent of UK admissions visitors have been to polytechnic or university.
One third of UK visitors had never previously been to the Science Museum.
Over 6000 school and college groups visit the Museum each year.
Amongst foreign visitors, the most common countries of origin were:
Source: Quarterly visitor report 2006
98 percent of Museum visitors were very satisfied or satisfied with their visit, with 79 per cent very satisfied.
On average visitors spent between 1¾ and 2¼ hours in the Museum.
90 percent of visitors felt that their spend within the Museum was very good or fairly good value for money.
The Science Museum website attracts 6.5 million visits (and rising) a year.
The Science Museum’s Website consistently the top three search results for ‘science museum’ on Google, holding off the United States’ Exploratorium.
AOP Online Publishing Awards (2004) - Design - consumer, Making the Modern World Online, New launch, www.ingenious.org.uk
'Museums and the Web' conference in Vancouver - Best Educational Use and Best Overall Museum website - Making the Modern World Online (2005)
‘Gold’ award for Website Multimedia Awards in the International Visual Communication Awards - Energy website and info zone (2005)
London Visitor Attraction of the Year Award (2001 and 2002) - the first back-to-back winner.
English Tourism Council Excellence In England Award - Visitor Attraction of the Year (2002).
BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award - Interactive Arts for the Wellcome Wing (2000).
RIBA Award for Architecture - for the Wellcome Wing (2001).
IPR Excellence Awards - Consumer Relationships (2003).
Tomorrow's World Award - Raymond Baxter Award for Science Communication (2001).
Winner of the Design Week Awards for Museum/Galleries/Visitor Attractions - The Energy gallery (2005).
Loo of the Year Awards - Heritage Category Winners for the IMAX cinema toilets, awarded five stars (2003).
The Museum has over 2000 interactive hands-on exhibits.
The Wellcome Wing and Making the Modern World house over 2700 exhibits and provide exhibition space greater than two football pitches.
Since 1960 the Museum has welcomed over 85 million visitors.
The Science Museum began life in 1857 as the South Kensington Museum, founded with profits from the Great Exhibition in 1851.
The arts and science collections began to evolve separately and in 1885 the latter became known as the Science Museum.
In 1909 the two museums were formally separated, and the Science Museum’s current building was formally opened by King George V in 1928.
The Science Museum will celebrate its centenary in 2009.
The Science Museum holds more than 300,000 objects in its collections.
The Museum has 37,000 square metres of gallery space.
The Museum only has space to display around 7 per cent of its collection at any one time.
The IMAX cinema screen is over 20 metres wide and more than five stories high.
The following have been guests or have made speeches at the Museum’s openings or other events: Her Majesty the Queen, Tony Blair MP, Gordon Brown MP, Lord David Frost, Lord David Puttnam, Lord Sainsbury, Tessa Jowell MP, Estelle Morris MP, Sir Matthew Pinsent, Jon Snow, Professor Stephen Hawking, Professor Sir Martin Rees, Greg Dyke, the Duke of Kent, Alastair Campbell.
The following famous faces have been spotted enjoying a visit to the Museum: Madonna and Guy Ritchie, the Duke of York and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Jude Law, Gary Lineker, Simon and Yasmin Le Bon, Jonathan Ross, Sir Bob Geldof, Vanilla Ice, Tony Robinson, Paul McKenna, Ruby Wax, Claudia Schiffer, Jeremy Paxman, Melanie Sykes, Cilla Black, Paul O'Grady, Esther Rantzen, Rachel Stevens, Paul Weller, Jeremy Clarkson, Dawn French, Colin Firth, Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Gately, Elle McPherson, Bryan Ferry, Ainsley Harriot, Linda Barker, Anthea Turner
