National Parks in the United States - visits increase but not for millenials

Yosemite National Park with Bridalveil waterfall - Shutterstock

In both the United States and Australia, visits to National Parks have shown a consistent and in some cases, dramatic increase in visitors over the past few years. But the increased interest although impressive disguises another aspect - the actual composition of the visitors. While Millenials constitute 21% of the US population, they only contribute 14% to the visitor cohort to the National Parks. Baby boomers in contrast are 24% of the US population but are 39% of the park visitors.  Despite a high level of environmental awareness amongst Millenials, there is not a corresponding level of practical engagement with nature. In the table below, the visitor data from the 15 most popular parks are listed. For ongoing public support for the parks in future decades, a high level of commitment will be needed from today's Millenial generation.

Major US National Parks

	National Park	2015	2016	Change %
1.	Great Smokey Mountains	10,712,642	11,312,786	5.6 increase
2.	Grand Canyon	5,520,736	5,969,811	8.1 increase
3.	Rocky Mountain	4,155,916	4,517,585	8.7 increase
4.	Yosemite	4,150,217	5,028,868	21.2 increase
5.	Yellowstone	4,097,710	4,257,177	3.8  increase
6.	Zion	3,648,846	4,295,127	17.7 increase
7.	Olympic	3,263,761	3,390,221	3.8 increase
8.	Grand Teton	3,149,921	3,270,076	3.8 increase
9.	Acadia	2,811,184	3,303,393	17.5 increase
10.	Glacier	2,366,056	2,946,681	24.5 increase
11.	Cuyahoga	2,284,612	2,423,390	6.0 increase
12.	Joshua Tree	2,025,756	2,505,286	19.1 increase
13.	Hawai’i Volcanoes	1,832,660	1,887,580	2.9 increase
14.	Bryce Canyon	1,745,804	2,365,110	35.4 increase
15.	Hot Springs	1,418,162	1,544,300	0.8 increase

Source: National Park Service Visitor Use Statistics https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/Reports/Park/GRSM