The Outdoor Recreation Economy
Whether it’s skiing, trail running, backpacking, or mountain biking, getting outside contributes billions to the overall economy.
Updated:
Mar 24, 2025Updated:
Mar 24, 2025Table of contents
From a recreationist’s perspective, it sure feels like more people than ever are getting outside. The data bears this out: In 2023, the number of people who participated in everything from trail running to fishing reached 175.8 million, according to a report from the Outdoor Industry Association, or OIA. That’s more than half the total population of the United States.
In fact, outdoor recreation has been steadily growing for decades in the U.S. Between 1960 and 1995, the number of people participating in cycling, camping, and snow sports more than doubled as outdoor sports entered mainstream culture, showing up in movie theaters and on television screens. The country was urbanizing and for many people, outdoor spaces became a respite from the grind of city life. Unsurprisingly, between 1965 and 2007, the amount of time people spent outside per capita more than doubled.
Fast forward to today, and the outdoor recreation industry shows no sign of slowing down. It grew more than twice as fast as the rest of the country’s economy between 2021 and 2022 and by 2023, 22 million more Americans over the age of six were participating in outdoor recreation than did so in 2019. That’s more than two and a half times the population of New York City. Not only are more and more people getting outside, but the profile of who is getting outside is changing, too. The average skier/biker/climber/rafter is still a white man, but more women and people of color are getting outside than before. According to the OIA, half of all American women now participate in outdoor recreation, and while the industry still has a ways to go in making the outdoors more accessible and equitable, more than 30 percent of outdoor recreation participants in 2023 were people of color—a 3-percent increase since 2020. LGBTQ-identifying outdoor recreationists also saw 3 million more participants between 2021 and 2022.
However, not all the industry news is about pure growth: The number of outings per participant and the number of people categorized as frequent outdoor recreationists have seen significant declines in recent years. In 2012, the average outdoor recreationist got out 87 times a year. Today, that number has fallen to about 60 times a year. Essentially, more people than ever are spending time outside, but they’re getting out less frequently than before, which could indicate a loss of reliable, committed participants in the future.
As the industry has grown, so has its economic impacts. In 2023, the total amount spent by Americans on all things outdoor recreation contributed $639.5 billion to the U.S. economy—or 2.3 percent of the nation’s GDP, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. That may seem like a small number, but in the context of the economy as a whole, it’s staggering. For example, everything the country grows on its farms makes up about 0.7 percent of the overall GDP, while the entire education sector makes up about 5.6 percent. Americans spend more on outdoor recreation than they do on pharmaceuticals. In short, outdoor recreation isn’t the largest industry in the country, but it’s a relatively huge component of how Americans spend their time and money.
A little more than $156 billion—or about a quarter—of all that outdoor recreation-related spending came from clothes and gear sales. All those base layers, midlayers, Gore-Tex jackets, hiking shoes, trekking poles, and ultralight backpacks, in short, add up. Another $165 billion came from all the things associated with outdoor activities. Those things, though, might not take place outside at all. For instance, when people travel to go skiing or for an RV trip through all the Western national parks, they’re spending money in gateway towns and on things like hotels, restaurants, and museums. As the number of people adventuring outside edges closer to 200 million, all that spending on meals near a trailhead and finding a place to stay for a night adds up. The boost in economic activity also contributes to federal and state tax revenue. Outdoor recreation generated more than $100 billion annually in taxes in 2017.
You might be wondering what goes into all this data. To assess the overall impact of outdoor recreation on the U.S. economy, the BEA measured the economic activity directly generated by people getting outside. However, this doesn’t just mean the amount of money spent on new skis, down jackets, and lift tickets. Instead, analysts looked at those sales and all the economic activity associated with selling those products and services. For example, if you bought a brand new fishing rod and tackle for your weekend trip, the BEA said those sales originated directly from fishing. But it also looks at the sales and jobs generated by manufacturing, shipping, and selling those same products. Then there are the hotels you stayed at and the restaurants where you ate during your trip. Not only does the BEA consider standard outdoor activities (think hiking, biking, boating, fishing, and hunting), it also takes into account activities like gardening and outdoor concerts. If you’re surprised by the enormous amount of money outdoor recreation generates, that’s because the ways we get outside—trail running, hiking, backpacking—are part of a much broader economic ecosystem that includes everything from the manufacturing industry to tourism.
Purchases on things like new RV campers, mountain bikes, rock climbing gear, or hiking shoes and just about anything else that can be found in your local outdoor gear shop contributed more than $124 billion to the national GDP and supplied more than 2 million jobs.
Outdoor festivals and spectator sports, like a BMX race, as well as the hotels, vacation rentals, and food services necessary to support those events cumulatively added more than $165 billion to the national GDP and supported two million jobs.
Manufacturing outdoor clothing and equipment injected more than $86 billion into our national GDP in 2023. While major brands like Patagonia and The North Face do manufacture most of their products overseas, a few states like California, Texas, and Indiana still have large manufacturing sectors. In fact, these three states accounted for nearly a third of that $86 billion as a whole.
Spending generated by non-local traveling—meaning adventures more than 50 miles from home—supplied $180 billion to the national GDP. These economic contributions also include the two million jobs created by travel and tourism.
Along with the growing number of people getting outside, the number of people employed in, or adjacent to, outdoor recreation has also climbed steadily. That’s true in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In 2022, the outdoor industry supplied nearly 5 million jobs across the country, a 22-percent rebound from the pandemic-era employment lows, according to the BEA. To put the 5 million jobs into perspective, that’s about the same number of people employed by all the hospitals in the U.S.
States like Hawaii, Alaska, Vermont, and the District of Columbia saw more than a 10-percent growth in outdoor industry-related jobs between 2021 and 2022. And we’re not just talking about your typical low-wage, seasonal jobs, like national park rangers, ski patrollers, and rafting guides. They also include retail jobs at your local REI, manufacturing jobs in the factories making outdoor gear, tourism and service-industry jobs in restaurants, hotels, and lodges around ski resorts, and more. In short, a big chunk of the outdoor recreation economy doesn’t involve getting outside at all; rather it’s the spending on the travel and the gear associated with our backcountry adventures.
Where we recreate is also an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to outdoor recreation’s overall economic impact. Though it’s hard to put a price on public lands, the value of the jobs, protections, and revenue generated by recreating in our national parks or forests is sizable. According to the OIA, national parks, wildlife refuges, monuments, and other public lands and waters accounted for $45 billion in economic output and about 396,000 jobs nationwide in 2017. Public lands can also be important economic assets for nearby communities. Between 1970 and 2010, rural communities in the western U.S. with more federal land outpaced communities with the lowest share of federal land in terms of population growth, employment opportunities, and salary rates. Essentially, access to public land allowed these places to take advantage of the economic benefits that the outdoor recreation boom has unleashed over the last 50 years.
Visitation to national parks, in particular, hit record highs before the pandemic and then fell slightly, but has since rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. In 2023, the National Park Service reported a total of 325 million visitors, just 5 million less than the record-high of 330 million in 2016. Nationally, this resulted in $26 billion in visitor spending and has created more than 340,000 jobs in our parks alone. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most-visited national park in the country, with 13 million visitors in 2023—more than the Grand Canyon and Zion combined. The economic benefits of those visitors trickle down to the communities outside of the parks as well. Park County, Wyoming, which touches both Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park, saw a 109-percent increase in employment and a 154-percent increase in the average household income between 1970 and 2015, according to Headwater Economics.
And it isn’t just national parks that are benefitting our economy. Other kinds of public land are contributing, too. In 2023, land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) created over 42,000 jobs nationwide and generated $11.1 billion from the money visitors spent to recreate there, with Utah, California and Nevada contributing more than $700 million each to the total. In 2016, public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service contributed more than $13 billion to the economy and over 200,000 jobs. The economic impacts continue for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages our wildlife refuges. In 2017, 53 million people visited a refuge to fish, hunt, or recreate, generating $3.2 billion and about 40,000 jobs.
Recreation, of course, isn’t the only moneymaker on public lands. Logging, oil and gas, grazing, and more generate revenues and jobs. Not all federal agencies are equally transparent with their data, but the Bureau of Land Management put forth a report on the value produced across all sorts of industries for its 245 million acres of public lands for the fiscal year 2023. Recreation generated about $11.8 billion that year, more than logging, renewable energy, coal, or grazing. However, minerals not used for energy production produced a whopping $16 billion in economic output, and oil and gas made for a mind-boggling $183.8 billion. Recreation also supported about 76,000 jobs, second only to oil and gas.
Fishing, boating, stand-up paddle boarding, and kayaking are all growing in popularity, with big gains occurring in activities like canoeing and fly fishing among the under-17 set.
Participants: According to a 2018 OIA report, 22.9 million Americans participated in at least one paddling activity.
Economic Contribution: Water sports, including boating and fishing, contributed $25 billion to the GDP in 2022.
The allure of netting a brown trout in Montana or a large sailfish on the Texas Gulf Coast draws millions of people to our waterways every year to cast a line. In Florida, fishing and boating generated $4.4 billion, while in California and Texas, it was over $2 billion. North Carolina, Indiana, Washington, Georgia, Minnesota, Michigan, Tennessee, and New York each saw over $1 billion in economic output from fishing-related recreation, according to the BEA.
Participants: In 2023, over 57 million Americans over the age of six took to the country’s lakes, rivers, and oceans to fish.
Economic Contribution: A 2022 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey estimated the industry generated $99.4 billion in expenditures, including equipment, trip-related purchases, packs, and clothing.
Whether you’re sending an alpine big wall or just bouldering at your local gym, rock climbing is a major component of the outdoor industry. Climbing often draws people into rural parts of the country in search of new crags and boulders, giving local economies a critical boost. For instance, in Tennessee, climbers spend about $14.3 million annually, and in Bishop, CA, and surrounding Inyo County, climbers shell out more than $15 million a year.
Participants: According to a 2019 American Association of Climbing Report, both indoor and outdoor climbing had 7.7 million participants in 2014.
Economic Contribution: The sport contributed nearly $12.5 billion to the U.S. economy in 2017, with most of those expenditures stemming from travel. This can have considerable economic impacts in rural communities, like Lander, Wyoming, which has become a hub for climbers.
One of the most accessible ways to get people outside, biking has seen a major surge in popularity, particularly kids riding BMX bikes. From 2021 to 2022, cycling, including road, BMX, and mountain, saw a 6.5-percent growth in participation.
Participants: In 2022, more than 54 million people rode a bike, whether on trail or around town, according to OIA.
Economic Contribution: According to the BEA, the cycling industry contributed more than $2.1 billion to the total GDP in 2022.
Growing alongside the van-life movement, off-roading and motorcycling are carving out a significant spot in the outdoor industry, creating 867,000 jobs in 2017, according to the OIA.
Participants: More than 30 million Americans rode Off-Highway Vehicles (OHVs) annually, according to 2019 estimates from the U.S. Forest Service.
Economic Contributions: Off-Roading contributed $17 billion to local economies in 2019, according to a USFS analysis.
With their low barrier to entry (just a pair of shoes) trail activities like hiking, backpacking, and trail running are the most popular and fastest-growing sectors of the outdoor industry. In fact, hiking was the most popular form of outdoor recreation in 2023, outpacing cycling, camping, and trail running.
Participants: In 2022 there were 59.6 million hikers and 1.2 million trail runners, according to the OIA.
Economic Contribution: The OIA reported that trail sports generated $20 billion in expenditures in 2017.
Whether it’s in a campground at a national park or on a patch of dirt miles deep in the backcountry, camping has seen tremendous growth over the last few years. With an abundance of ways to sleep outside, from roof-top tents to ultralight trekking pole shelters, today, almost 15 percent of the entire U.S. population camps at least once a year.
Participants: OIA reported that 51 million people went camping in 2022.
Economic Contribution: That same year, the BEA estimates that hiking and camping contributed $4.9 billion to the national GDP in the form of gear sales and travel expenses. And lest we forget, RV camping, which is included in these analyses, has seen immense growth as well.
Over the last 20 years, the number of people who own an RV has increased by 62 percent and continues to rise. Among outdoor activities, RVing and RV sales are now the largest contributors to the nation’s GDP. What’s more, today’s RV enthusiasts are younger than in the past, with the average RV owner in their mid-thirties, according to the RV Industry Association.
Participants: The RV Industry Association reported that 11.2 million households own an RV.
Economic Contributions: The RV industry contributed $35.5 billion to the national GDP in 2022— the largest sector in the outdoor industry by $3 billion.
Though the number of people who hunt is declining, hunting is still an important part of the outdoor industry. Special taxes for licenses, ammunition, and guns, along with permit sales contribute over $1.8 billion toward wildlife conservation annually. States with large hunting industries—think Georgia, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin—depend on this source of revenue and the employment opportunities that the industry provides.
Participants: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that 14.4 million people hunted in 2022.
Economic Contributions: Hunting contributed $9.6 billion to the nation’s economy in 2022, according to the BEA, and directly supports more than 480,000 jobs.
Heading to a local wildlife refuge or wilderness area with a pair of binoculars or a camera to see wildlife, is the primary way that many people interact with the outdoors.
Participants: According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, 73.3 million people went to view wildlife further than a mile from their home, more than half of whom were bird watchers.
Economic Contributions: In 2022, wildlife watching generated $250.2 billion, and created about 236,000 jobs in 2017, according to an estimate from the OIA.
Skiing, snowboarding, and any other sport that gets people out in the fresh powder, accounts for a large part of the outdoor recreation industry. Even snowshoeing has seen a tremendous 20-percent growth in popularity between 2021 and 2022—the largest of any activity that year. Predictably, winter sports occupy a large part of Colorado’s outdoor economy, generating $1.4 billion in 2022—the highest of any state.
Participants: A Snow Industries of America report found that more than 22 million Americans (almost 10 percent of the US population older than six)participated in a winter sport in 2023— a nearly 5 million person increase from the previous season.
Economic Contribution: Snow sports as a whole contributed $5.8 billion to U.S. GDP in 2022, with $1.6 billion of that amount from skiing, $1.4 billion from snowboarding, and $2.8 billion from other sports like snowmobiling and ice skating.
The growth of the outdoor recreation industry benefits the country’s economy as a whole, but where those benefits occur varies greatly by region and state. In states without large, diverse economies—think more rural states, especially in the West—the benefits from strong outdoor recreation industries have an even bigger impact.
In Montana, Vermont, Hawaii, Wyoming, and Alaska, for instance, outdoor recreation makes up 4 percent or more of the overall state GDP. These states all have large swaths of public land, while Hawaii’s unique ocean-based amenities also grant abundant recreation opportunities. But these states also have some of the smallest populations and economies in the country, which makes their outdoor recreation industries even more important to their overall economic stability. In Vermont, for example, the outdoor economy contributed less than many other states to the national GDP, but its snow sports industry was among the top ten largest in the nation, generating $243 million. These rural states also rely more heavily on the jobs, revenue, and taxes generated from outdoor recreation; in Hawaii, for instance, the industry supplies nearly 7 percent of all jobs.
In other parts of the country like Nebraska, New York, Delaware, North Dakota, and Virginia, outdoor recreation has much less of an economic impact, making up 1.8 percent or less of the state’s GDP. Still, that’s not to say these states don’t contribute to the outdoor economy overall. In California, for example, only 2 percent of the state’s GDP came from outdoor recreation, but that contribution—$73 billion—to the national GDP was still more than any other state. Florida, Texas, and New York follow a similar pattern. These states have big populations, with large urban areas and substantial industries built around outdoor recreation like manufacturing, outdoor events, hospitality, and tourism.
Recognizing the growth of outdoor recreation and its economic contributions to both local communities and the overall state economy, at least 18 states have created their own state offices promoting outdoor recreation.
It’s clear that outdoor recreation has a lot to offer—both for local communities and for the U.S. economy as a whole—but it’s also true that the industry’s growth has created problems, from the crowding at trailheads to trash in the backcountry to the impacts on wildlife. And without proper management, the growth in outdoor recreation can also impact nearby communities negatively, too, by driving up the cost of living, leading to housing shortages, and straining local infrastructure and public resources.
Many of these outdoor recreation hubs can fall into what Headwaters Economics calls the “amenity trap”: a paradox in which communities with natural attractions like mountains, rivers, and trails make them great places to live, are also threatened by getting “loved to death.” Housing is one of the biggest challenges facing these amenity communities.
Across the country, the same story is playing out in towns like Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Park City, Utah, and Bozeman, Montana, which often serve as gateways to some of the most beautiful outdoor recreation areas in the world: The high cost of housing is pushing out much of the local workforce, including essential members of the community, like teachers, nurses, and childcare workers, forcing them to endure hours-long commutes to work, while many other longtime residents have had to leave the community entirely.
A Headwaters report also cites the logistical challenges towns face in trying to keep up with their outdoor recreation-driven growth. The uptick in tourists and new residents can put pressure on existing infrastructure and public services, sometimes leading to additional taxes and other costs. This can create an undue burden for local residents to support the growth of their communities which are already becoming too expensive for them to live in. What’s more, counties with large amounts of public land are often limited in where and how they can build more infrastructure to accommodate their growing populations. For example, in Teton County, Wyoming, 97 percent of the county is public land, making it hard to develop, for instance, additional roadways or sewage treatment capacity.
Another side to the amenity trap is the growing vulnerability of recreation-dependent economies to the unpredictabilities of our changing climate. Climate change-exacerbated natural disasters are already putting strain on these communities. Historic flooding in Yellowstone National Park in June 2022, for example, closed multiple entrances to the park and led to a 43-percent decrease in visitors compared to June 2021. In Montana, one report estimated that climate change-related impacts—like severe wildfires, smoke, and drought—could cost the state 3,800 jobs and $107 million in lost productivity by 2050.
There’s no question that the outdoor industry’s explosive growth is reaping benefits for both local communities and the U.S. economy. Explosions, however, carry some risks. Left unmanaged, the outdoor recreation boom has the potential to damage, as much as improve, the landscapes and communities in its orbit. How, for instance, can communities adapt to the social and economic changes unleashed by surging outdoor recreation? And, how do we ensure that outdoor recreation’s economic benefits reach the places that need them most? Answering these questions is essential if we’re to ensure the growing outdoor recreation economy is sustainable for people and the planet. Our public lands, for instance, are chronically underfunded, which means the places where we often play are facing massive shortfalls in both budget and staff. As land management agencies undergo seismic shifts, from large-scale firings to rehirings to pauses on new employees, recreationists can and should take a stand for the places they love.
Public Lands
Ski Resorts and Public Land
Public Lands
The Backpack Tax
Public Lands
Multiple Use on Public Lands
Public Lands
How We Fund Our Public Lands
Public Lands
Easements, Explained
Public Lands
Public Lands Types
Public Lands
Letter from the Editor
