Outdoor Participation Report

In 2024, the outdoor recreation participant base grew 3% to a record 181.1 million participants, or 58.6 percent of all Americans aged 6 and older. There were significant increases in the number of youth and seniors, participants with more than $100K in annual income, participants in the South and participants with a high school diploma and no college education, as well as in Black and Hispanic participants. Additionally, the number of core participants increased by 5.7 percent (five million participants).

Participants are most attracted to walking, hiking, fishing, camping, bicycling and running outdoors and each of those major activities gained an average of 2.1 million participants. Nearly every signal in the 2024 participation data is positive for prolonged growth. Despite weakening economic conditions, the prospect of growth in the number of Americans who participate in outdoor recreation is very strong.