Accreditation: The Accreditation Scheme is the professional benchmarking system for the UK.

Governance: Governance is the system by which museums are directed and managed at the highest level.

Size: Size is calculated on the basis of visitor numbers. Huge (1million+), Large (100,000 –1million), Medium (10,000-100,000), Small (0-10,000).

Subject Matter: The overarching topic addressed by the museum.

Location: Location is organised according to the administrative areas of each country.

Year opened: Year when the museum was first accessible to the public on a regular basis. Date ranges are used when the precise year cannot be established, in which case the mid-point of the date range is taken to be their year of opening in Browse.

Year closed: Year when regular public access to the museum ceased. Date ranges are used when the precise year cannot be established, in which case the mid-point of the date range is taken to be their year of closing in Browse.

Geodemographic group: A classification system that describes small areas in the UK based on the characteristics of the population they contain.

Geodemographic subgroup: A more detailed version of geodemographic group.

Deprivation index: A measure for the relative deprivation of geographic areas in the UK, with 1 being the most deprived and 10 being the least deprived