The paper presents research results on cultural consumption of young people in Đakovo and Zadar. The first part of the paper shows the fundamental theoretical approaches to cultural consumption and an overview of relevant research in Croatia and the world. What follows are listed and interpreted research results that were gathered through an online survey on a representative sample of 260 young people from Đakovo and Zadar in 2016. The aim of the research is focused on detecting patterns of cultural consumption of young people from Đakovo and Zadar and determining the difference with respect to the socioeconomic status of respondents and their parents. In order to explore these goals, bivariate statistical tests (t-test and analysis of variance) were used. The implementation of the mentioned statistical procedures determines that there are differences in satisfaction and frequency of visiting cultural events between respondents from Đakovo and Zadar. Furthermore, it was determined that there are differences in musical preferences of respondents with regard to the education level of their parents. Finally, it was found that there are differences in the frequency of visiting cultural events due to the socioeconomic status of the respondents. Results of the study indicate the distinction between traditional and elite forms of cultural consumption, which is consistent with previous research in Croatia.