STATISTICS / 2026

National park statistics 2026

These figures come from the National Park Service and related federal reports. Calendar 2026 visit totals are not published yet.

Updated . Year is in the title, not the web address.

From np.guide

np.guide publishes offline field guides for all 10 of the most visited national parks in 2025. Sample: 10 published guides.

How many people visited

The National Park System recorded 323,014,305 recreation visits in 2025. 406 of 433 park units reported counts. Source: National Park Service, 13 March 2026.

That is 8.85 million visits fewer than 2024, a drop of 2.7%. Source: NPS Visitor Use Data.

2024 was the record year, with 331,863,358 recreation visits. Source: NPS Statistical Abstract 2024.

Visitors spent 1,386,749,187 hours in parks in 2025. Source: National Park Service, 13 March 2026.

26 parks set a new annual visit record in 2025. Source: same news release.

A recreation visit is one entry by one person onto park land or water on one day. A person who comes back the next day counts again. Source: NPS visitor use definitions.

Most visited national parks, 2025

These are units named National Park, not parkways or recreation areas. Source: National Park Service, 13 March 2026.

  1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 11,527,939
  2. Zion National Park, 4,984,525
  3. Yellowstone National Park, 4,762,988
  4. Grand Canyon National Park, 4,430,653
  5. Yosemite National Park, 4,278,413
  6. Rocky Mountain National Park, 4,171,431
  7. Acadia National Park, 4,079,318
  8. Grand Teton National Park, 3,800,648
  9. Olympic National Park, 3,584,187
  10. Glacier National Park, 3,136,557

Most visited sites in the whole system, 2025

Parkways and recreation areas outrank most national parks. Source: same news release.

  1. Blue Ridge Parkway, 16,533,753
  2. Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 15,748,676
  3. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 11,527,939
  4. Natchez Trace Parkway, 7,994,783
  5. Lincoln Memorial, 7,743,295
  6. Gateway National Recreation Area, 7,696,939
  7. Gulf Islands National Seashore, 7,576,923
  8. George Washington Memorial Parkway, 6,732,932
  9. Appalachian National Scenic Trail, 6,215,118
  10. Lake Mead National Recreation Area, 6,135,586

Visits by kind of park, 2025

National parks had 93,892,121 recreation visits, about 29% of the system. Source: IRMA Annual Visitation Summary 2025.

National recreation areas had 48,964,586 visits, about 15%. Source: same IRMA table.

National parkways had 32,758,982 visits, about 10%. Source: same IRMA table.

National monuments had 17,796,934 visits, about 6%. Source: same IRMA table.

Overnight stays, 2025

Parks recorded 13,016,577 overnight stays in 2025. An overnight stay is one person staying one night. Source: National Park Service, 13 March 2026.

IRMA lists the same year as 13,016,586 on its total line, a difference of 9 stays. The category rows below sum to 13,016,577. Source: IRMA Annual Visitation Summary 2025.

2024 overnight stays were 13,412,294. Source: NPS Statistical Abstract 2024.

Money and jobs

Visitors spent $29 billion in towns near parks in 2024. Source: National Park Service, 25 September 2025.

That spending supported $56.3 billion in U.S. economic output and $18.8 billion in labor income. Source: same report.

Lodging had $11.1 billion in direct output. Restaurants had $5.7 billion. Source: same report.

The 2024 press release does not publish a 2024 jobs count. The last official jobs figure is 415,000 jobs in 2023. Source: Department of the Interior, 27 August 2024.

A 2025 visitor-spending report is not out yet.

Visitors from other countries

35.6% of 35.2 million overseas visitors to the United States went to a national park or monument in 2024. Source: National Travel and Tourism Office, Survey of International Air Travelers 2024.

The largest overseas source markets for those park visits were the United Kingdom (1.8 million), Germany (1 million), France (901,000), Brazil (876,000), and Australia (726,000). Source: NTTO travel market profiles, 2024.

Deaths and rescues

Parks reported an average of 358 deaths a year from 2014 through 2019, about 7 a week. Source: NPS deaths in national parks.

The 2019 death rate was 0.11 deaths per 100,000 recreation visits. Source: same page.

Counts after 2019 are not yet validated. Do not treat later dashboard rows as final.

The National Park Service responds to about 4,500 search and rescue incidents a year. That line is not stamped with a year. Source: NPS Aviation Program, visitor protection.

What is not published

There is no official 2026 year-to-date visit total in IRMA. Monthly 2026 rows were empty when checked.

The Park Service does not publish a national average length of stay. It publishes visitor hours.

There is no official systemwide share of first-time visitors.