The Great Smoky Mountains National Park reached its highest number of recreational visitors in 2021, reporting 14.161 million visitors, an increase from the previous value of around 12.4 million in 2020.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Established in 1926, the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks is located in the United States, spanning across Tennessee and North Carolina. This park, which topped the ranking of the most-visited U.S. national parks in 2021, owes its name to the ever-present morning fog on site. With miles of hardwoods, a wide variety of wildlife, and around 700 miles of fish-filled streams, visitors to the Great Mountains National Park can enjoy various outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, and observing the local wildlife.

Hiking in the United States

According to the ‘’Outdoor Participation Report’’ annually produced by the Physical Activity Council (PAC), hiking is among the most popular outdoor activities in the United States. This pastime has experienced a rise in popularity in recent years. In 2021, the number of people participating in hiking in the United States reached an all-time high, with approximately 57.8 million participants that year.

In 2024, Yosemite National Park welcomed a total of 4.1 million visitors. This was an increase from the previous year, when the park had 3.9 million visitors. Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park is a large national forest located in central California. It was founded in 1864 and boasts over 1,200 square miles of vast wilderness, glaciers and winter sports. The park is known for the famous El Capitan rock formation that is popular among climbers around the world. Yosemite is among the most visited national parks in the U.S. with other big names such as Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Zion National Park. Looking at attendance at park attractions and similar sites in the United States, national parks attracted the largest number of visitors in 2023. Climbing and Hiking in the U.S. Rock climbing and hiking is a popular pastime at parks like Yosemite. Hiking and climbing have been increasing in popularity across the United States. In 2024, the number of people participating in hiking in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 63.4 million individuals. Moreover, hiking was also the most popular outdoor activity in the U.S. followed by fishing in 2023.

The statistic shows the leading national parks in Canada in 2020, by number of visitors. In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020, Banff was the leading national park in Canada in terms of visitor numbers, with ************ visitors.

Glacier National Park in the United States attracted over 3.2 million visitors in 2024. This figure shows a slight increase from the previous year's value of 2.93 million.

Attendance data for national parks and historic sites - 2020-21

Public parks serve an important societal function as recreational spaces for diverse communities of people, with well documented physical and mental health benefits. As such, parks may be crucial for how people have handled effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the increasingly limited recreational opportunities, widespread financial uncertainty, and consequent heightened anxiety. Despite the documented benefits of parks, however, many states have instituted park shutdown orders due to fears that public parks could facilitate SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Here we use geotagged social media data from state, county, and local parks throughout New Jersey to examine whether park visitation increased when the COVID-19 pandemic began and whether park shutdown orders were effective at deterring park usage. We compare park usage during four discrete stages of spring 2020: (1) before the pandemic began, (2) during the beginning of the pandemic, (3) during the New Jersey governor's state-wide park shutdown order, and (4) following the lifting of the shutdown. We find that park visitation increased by 63.4% with the onset of the pandemic. The subsequent park shutdown order caused visitation in closed parks to decline by 76.1% while parks that remained open continued to experience elevated visitation levels. Visitation then returned to elevated pre-shutdown levels when closed parks were allowed to reopen. Altogether, our results indicate that parks continue to provide crucial services to society, particularly in stressful times when opportunities for recreation are limited. Furthermore, our results suggest that policies targeting human behavior can be effective and are largely reversible. As such, we should continue to invest in public parks and to explore the role of parks in managing public health and psychological well-being.

Yellowstone National Park in the United States – the country’s oldest national park - attracted a total of approximately 4.7 million visitors in 2024. The park received over three million visitors annually since 2008 and reached its visitation peak in 2021.

This statistic shows the number of recreational visitors to Olympic National Park in the United States from 2008 to 2023. The number of visitors to Olympic National Park increased to approximately 2.95 million in 2023, up from 2.43 million visitors the previous year.

Daily visitor use in Rocky Mountain National Park has increased substantially since 2014, raising questions about the impact of human waste on water quality in popular areas without latrines. Human urine contributes nitrogen, and the ecological and biogeochemical effects of nitrogen from atmospheric deposition have long been the topic of study in Loch Vale watershed, Rocky Mountain National Park. Nitrogen from atmospheric deposition has been found previously to lead to lake eutrophication and altered algal species assemblages. Our data were collected to evaluate the impacts of visitors to a popular alpine watershed in Rocky Mountain National Park. There are three separate data files: soil sample locations and concentrations of nitrate, ammonium, and caffeine (used as a marker of human waste) for May-September 2019; surface water sample locations and concentrations of nitrate, ammonium, and caffeine (used as a marker of human waste) for May-September 2019; and trail count data for June-September 2019 and 2020. The study was conducted by USGS and Rocky Mountain National Park researchers and yielded results regarding the nitrogen input (which was calculated as 2% of total annual N inputs) and also revealed information on visitor behavior, namely that many visitors do not follow standard Leave No Trace guidelines for locating privy sites 200 feet or more from a water body.

Attendance data for national parks and historic sites - 2019-20

This dataset records attendance data for national parks and historic sites in Canada in 2019-20.

Mid-year (30 June) estimates of the usual resident population for the 13 National Parks in England and Wales. These are official statistics in development.

As of the third quarter of 2021, the total number of visitors to national parks in Tanzania increased to nearly 326,000, up from 131,400 in the corresponding quarter in 2020. The growth reflected signs of recovery in the tourism industry after the lower performance during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Northern and Lake zones registered the highest number of visitors in national parks, 177,500 and 106,250, respectively.

Attendance data for national parks and historic sites - 2020-21

Dataset of the supplementary material.WDPAID = reference code from the National Park of Protected Planet | NAME = name of the National Park | REP_AREA = area of the National Park | STATUS_YR = establishment year of the National Park | GOV_TYPE = type of government that manage the National Park | MANG_PLAN = information provided by Protected Planet regarding the park management plan | ISO3 = ISO3 code of the country where the National Park is located | REGION = African region of the National Park | AVERAGE_VIEWS = average views extracted from the wikipedia page between 2015-2020 | DEGAZETTE = number of degazettement events | DOWNGRADE = number of downgrading events | DOWNSIZE = number of downzising events | wikidata_url = address of the centralised repository of structured data for Wikipedia | wikidata_id = identifier of the centralised repository of structured data for Wikipedia | AGRILAND = percentage of agricultural cultivation area coverage within and around the park (10km² buffer) | POPDENSITY = population density in ind/km within and around the park (10km² buffer) | BUILTUP = percentage of built/urbanized area coverage within and around the park (10km² buffer) | ROAD = area coverage with presence of highways within and around the park (10km² buffer) | GPI2020 = Global Peace Index from 2020 provided by IEP | EXTERNALINTERV = considers the influence and impact of external actors on the functioning of the economy and security provided by IEP | TOURISM = number of tourists (arrivals per 100,000) provided by IEP | GDP = GDP per capita (US$) divided by mid-year population provided by IEP.Abstract: National Parks (NP) and other protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa are crucial in attracting international tourists interested in wildlife tourism, contributing to national economies. Despite their cultural, economic, and conservation significance, these areas face diverse development threats, leading to pressures for protected area downgrading, downsizing, or degazettement (known as PADDD). We comprehensively analyse the geographical, historical, and structural aspects of 322 National Parks in sub-Saharan Africa and assess their political vulnerability by exploring the interplay of development pressures and public interest (as measured through Wikipedia page views). Fewer than 30% of these NPs possess or report information regarding management plans, even among the five most frequently viewed areas on Wikipedia. This is particularly concerning, since among those who underwent a PADDD event (51 NPs), almost 90% of them also had no information about the existence of management plans. Although we did not identify a statistically significant association between tourism and public interest online, tourism emerges as a potential mitigating factor against PADDD, along with high levels of peace. National parks that garner significant public interest online do not share the same socio-geographic profile as parks that are most resilient to PADDD events. While digital metrics of public interest have potential as indicators of political resilience in National Parks, our research has shown that these metrics need refinement to fully understand which biophysical and cultural aspects of parks attract more public attention. Overall, effective conservation strategies in sub-Saharan Africa require a more holistic understanding of historical, socio-economic, and cultural factors.

AbstractGiven the importance of protected areas for biodiversity, the growth of visitation to many areas has raised concerns about the effects of humans on wildlife. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to temporary closure of national parks in the United States, offering a pseudonatural experiment to tease apart the effects of permanent infrastructure and transient human presence on animals. We compiled GPS tracking data from 229 individuals of 10 mammal species in 14 parks, and used third-order hierarchical Resource Selection Functions to evaluate the influence of the human footprint on animal space use in 2019 and 2020. Averaged across all parks and species, animals avoided the human footprint, whether the park was open or closed. However, while animals in remote areas showed consistent avoidance, on average those in more developed areas switched from avoidance to selection when protected areas were closed. Findings varied across species: some responded consistently negatively to the footprint (wolves, mountain goats), some positively (mule deer, red fox), and others had a strong exposure-mediated response (elk, mountain lion). Furthermore, some species responded more strongly to the park closure (black bear, moose). This study advances our understanding of complex interactions between recreation and wildlife in protected areas. While we do not share raw location data due to the sensitivity of animal locations, we provide complete information on the format of data files, intermediate data products, and the scripts necessary to reproduce analyses.

These data represent an assessment of Ichthyofaunal community structure in selected streams located in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM). Sites are sampled on a rotational basis occurring once every two years. Currently (2020), there are ten watersheds being sampled using IBI protocols. Depending on the yearly rotation, these watersheds include Noland Creek, Deep Creek, Big Creek, Oconaluftee River, Eagle Creek, the East Prong of Little River (two sites), Straight Fork, Tabcat Creek, and Hazel Creek. In 2020, six sites were surveyed: East Prong Little River at Elkmont, Cataloochee Creek, Eagle Creek, West Prong Little River, Abrams Creek, and Oconaluftee River. Fish community assemblage assessments are made after collecting specimens using backpack electrofishing and seining techniques. Unlike the 3-Pass depletion method used to observe census data from GRSM streams, an IBI is used to determine how many species of fish are represented in a stream segment by surveying the various types of habitat: riffles, runs, pools, and shoreline. Techniques for IBI sampling also use seining in conjunction with electrofishing for fish capture. The point of IBI sampling isn’t to remove all the fish present, but rather to determine the community assemblage, i.e., species diversity within the stream segment. The GRSM Fishery Division works in conjunction with aquatics biologists at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), who then provide “scores” regarding the species’ representation or robustness given the site criteria. IBI scores and metrics are determined using the TVA IBI Stream Survey Recording System v2.02. Once data have been entered by GRSM staff in the TVA Stream Survey database, results are sent to TVA biologists, who then provide GRSM with the scores associated with the species observed. These scores for 2020 survey data were provided to GRSM by TVA during Fall 2020.

The Digital Bedrock Geologic-GIS Map of the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park and Vicinity, New Hampshire is composed of GIS data layers and GIS tables, and is available in the following GRI-supported GIS data formats: 1.) a 10.1 file geodatabase (saga_bedrock_geology.gdb), a 2.) Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) geopackage, and 3.) 2.2 KMZ/KML file for use in Google Earth, however, this format version of the map is limited in data layers presented and in access to GRI ancillary table information. The file geodatabase format is supported with a 1.) ArcGIS Pro map file (.mapx) file (saga_bedrock_geology.mapx) and individual Pro layer (.lyrx) files (for each GIS data layer), as well as with a 2.) 10.1 ArcMap (.mxd) map document (saga_bedrock_geology.mxd) and individual 10.1 layer (.lyr) files (for each GIS data layer). The OGC geopackage is supported with a QGIS project (.qgz) file. Upon request, the GIS data is also available in ESRI 10.1 shapefile format. Contact Stephanie O'Meara (see contact information below) to acquire the GIS data in these GIS data formats. In addition to the GIS data and supporting GIS files, three additional files comprise a GRI digital geologic-GIS dataset or map: 1.) this file (saga_geology_gis_readme.pdf), 2.) the GRI ancillary map information document (.pdf) file (saga_bedrock_geology.pdf) which contains geologic unit descriptions, as well as other ancillary map information and graphics from the source map(s) used by the GRI in the production of the GRI digital geologic-GIS data for the park, and 3.) a user-friendly FAQ PDF version of the metadata (saga_bedrock_geology_metadata_faq.pdf). Please read the saga_geology_gis_readme.pdf for information pertaining to the proper extraction of the GIS data and other map files. Google Earth software is available for free at: https://www.google.com/earth/versions/. QGIS software is available for free at: https://www.qgis.org/en/site/. Users are encouraged to only use the Google Earth data for basic visualization, and to use the GIS data for any type of data analysis or investigation. The data were completed as a component of the Geologic Resources Inventory (GRI) program, a National Park Service (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Division funded program that is administered by the NPS Geologic Resources Division (GRD). For a complete listing of GRI products visit the GRI publications webpage: For a complete listing of GRI products visit the GRI publications webpage: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/geologic-resources-inventory-products.htm. For more information about the Geologic Resources Inventory Program visit the GRI webpage: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/gri,htm. At the bottom of that webpage is a "Contact Us" link if you need additional information. You may also directly contact the program coordinator, Jason Kenworthy (jason_kenworthy@nps.gov). Source geologic maps and data used to complete this GRI digital dataset were provided by the following: U.S. Geological Survey. Detailed information concerning the sources used and their contribution the GRI product are listed in the Source Citation section(s) of this metadata record (saga_bedrock_geology_metadata.txt or saga_bedrock_geology_metadata_faq.pdf). Users of this data are cautioned about the locational accuracy of features within this dataset. Based on the source map scale of 1:24,000 and United States National Map Accuracy Standards features are within (horizontally) 12.2 meters or 40 feet of their actual location as presented by this dataset. Users of this data should thus not assume the location of features is exactly where they are portrayed in Google Earth, ArcGIS, QGIS or other software used to display this dataset. All GIS and ancillary tables were produced as per the NPS GRI Geology-GIS Geodatabase Data Model v. 2.3. (available at: https://www.nps.gov/articles/gri-geodatabase-model.htm).

The number of recreational visits to U.S. National Park Service sites increased in 2023 over the previous year. This rise in visitation, the recorded figure of roughly 326 million almost reached pre-pandemic levels.

The stationary point count method (7.5m radius cylinder) is used to conduct fish surveys in Florida as part of the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). This method collects and reports information on species composition, density, size structure, abundance and derived metrics (e.g., species richness, diversity). Data provided in this data set are from three (3) distinct regions along...