The National Park Service’s newly released 2024 visitation statistics reveal a record-breaking year, with more people exploring America’s national parks than ever before.
The service reported 331.9 million recreation visits in 2024, a 2% increase from 2023 and almost one million more visits than the previous 2016 record of 330,971,689.
The amount of time visitors spent in the parks was 1.4 billion, according to the report.
This data includes visits from 404 of the 433 National Park System units, with four new units reporting data in 2024.
Parks by the numbers
The reporting data took into account not just the headliner parks but also national monuments, battlefields, seashores and more.
The national parks draw visitors from around the world. A parks’ popularity can depend on many things, including ease of access, perceived natural beauty, social popularity and recreational opportunities. If you want to get an idea for where you might see the most crowds at the 63 national parks, here are the top ten most visited parks in 2024:
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee (12.19 million)
- Zion National Park in Utah (4.94 million)
- Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona (4.91 million)
- Yellowstone National Park in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana (4.74 million)
- Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado (4.15 million)
- Yosemite National Park in California (4.12 million)
- Acadia National Park in Maine (3.96 million)
- Olympic National Park in Washington (3.71 million)
- Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming (3.62 million)
- Glacier National Park in Montana (3.20 million)
Some parks are what you might call “hidden treasures.” These parks take a bit more planning to get to, and might be smaller than their popular counterparts. Here are the 10 least visited parks from 2024:
- Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska – 11,907 visits
- North Cascades National Park in Washington – 16,485 visits
- Kobuk Valley National Park in Alaska – 17,233 visits
- Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska – 18,505 visits
- Isle Royale National Park in Michigan – 28,806 visits
- Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska – 36,230 visits
- Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska – 81,670 visits
- Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida – 84,873 visits
- Great Basin National Park in Nevada – 152,068 visits
- Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota – 199,030 visits
Economic impact of park visitation
While the full data set for 2024 visitor spending effects across the parks won’t be available until later this year, in 2023, 325 million park visitors spent a record-high $55.6 billion while visiting National Park Service lands across the country.
Based on this spending the park service can calculate that visitor spending supported over 415 thousand jobs, generating $19.4 billion in wages and salaries for those employees, according to the NPS report.
Colorado State University and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government completed a first-of-its-kind economic valuation of the National Park Service in 2016 to commemorate the NPS’s 100th year of operation.
After surveying a random sample throughout the country, researchers marked the economic value of the service at $92 billion. The number represents the “amount the U.S. public says it would pay so as not to lose national parks and programs,” according to the study.
While the Visitor Spending Effects report created by the NPS puts a value on the amount of money generated directly from park visitors, this study sought to determine the value of the parks even to those who never visit them.
Whether they actually visit the parks or not, the survey showed that 95% of respondents said that protecting national parks for future generations was important, and 81% were willing to pay higher federal taxes to ensure that the park system was protected and preserved.
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