Benefits of Music: The Statistics

Here are just a few of the numbers

• 85% of respondents either completely or mostly agree that participating in school music corresponds with better grades and test scores. 
• According to the same U.S. Gallup Poll, 96% of the respondents completely or mostly agree that school band is a good way of meeting people, 94% believe music is part of a well-rounded education, and 82% believe that states should mandate music education so all students have the opportunity to study it in school. 

• On SAT tests, the national average scores were 427 on the verbal and 476 on math.  Meanwhile, music students averaged 465 on the verbal and 497 on the math— 38 and 21 points higher, respectively.
• A recent Rockefeller Foundation study discovered that music majors have the highest rate of admittance to medical schools, followed by biochemistry and the humanities.  

• The American Music Conference reports that music-makers are more likely to go on to college and other higher education than non-music makers—52% more likely.
• The AMC also reports that music-makers watch less TV and are more optimistic about their futures than non-music makers.
• The U.S. Department of Labor issued a report in 1991 urging schools to  teach for the future workplace.  The skills they recommend—working in teams, communication, self-esteem, creative thinking, imagination, and invention—are exactly those learned in school music and arts programs.

• From USA TODAY, January 19, 1987: "Musical training can be a big help in getting to the top of business and politics, according to most congressmen and Chief Executive Officers of Fortune 500 companies.    Ninety percent of more than 1,000 CEOs and congressmen interviewed by the McDonalds's fast food chain said playing a musical instrument as a child helped them develop ‘character and leadership skills.  New York Schools show that  “90% of their students who participate in music go on to college."

• A comprehensive series of skill tests were run on 5,154 fifth graders in all 75 of the Albuquerque, NM, elementary schools.  In every single test area, kids who were learning to play a musical instrument received higher marks than their classmates.  And the longer the students had  been in the instrumental programs, the higher they scored.
• A study at Florida State University (1990) showed 71% of administrators surveyed believed that art courses had a positive influence on student's decisions to stay in school, and that over 50% of the students surveyed stated that participation in arts courses positively influenced their decision to remain in school.