Every five years the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service publishes a National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. The most recent one, from 2022, came out in September. The primary goal of this survey is to gauge the level of participation in these recreational activities and measure their economic impact. Typically, results are compared to past surveys, though caution is advised this time around as the survey went through a significant overhaul to address challenges with rising costs, declining response rates and coverage errors in rural areas. Still, it’s informative.
In 2022, an estimated 14.4 million people age 16 or older hunted in the U.S. To put that in perspective, that’s slightly less than the total population of all six New England states combined. Interestingly, those same New England states ranked lowest in the nation, with hunters making up only 3% of the total population, compared to the national average of 6%, and a high of 16% in South Atlantic states. Maine, however, ranks high among all 50 states with roughly 15% of residents holding paid hunting licenses.
Not surprisingly, big game accounted for the majority of hunters at 11.5 million. Small game was next with 5.3 million followed by migratory birds and other animals at 2.8 million and 2.3 million, respectively. Note that the sum of these exceeds the total as many hunters participated in several types of hunting. And while the survey doesn’t break hunting participation down by individual species, we know from other surveys that white-tailed deer account for the majority of hunters, more than all other types combined.
Hunters collectively took 165 million trips in 2022. Big game again took top honors at 92 million trips with an average of 12 days per hunter, and other types experiencing similarly declining distribution. Hunters accounted for an annual expenditure of $45.2 billion, slightly more than 40% of which was on equipment with the rest evenly distributed between trip-related expenditures and “other,” which includes things like licenses and leases.
Also not surprising was males dominating the hunting population at 77%, but females making up nearly a quarter is encouraging. Also encouraging is hunters age 25-34 and 35-44 making up 16% and 19% of the total, respectively, with similar distributions in the older age classes. There has been concern that the hunting population was aging out but that no longer seems to be the case.
Race and ethnicity distribution was also as expected with whites and non-Hispanics dominating. While Asian Americans made up a small proportion of the total (800,000 people), they had the highest participation rate at 7%. Blacks made up about 10% of hunters at 1.5 million. Clearly there’s a disparity but we should view it as an opportunity, and a call to increase diversity in the hunting community.
Author Mark Twain is sometimes misquoted as having said, “Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.” That might apply to the sport of hunting as well. While the proportion of Americans who hunt may be down, there are still over 14 million people who contribute $45 billion to the economy every year, including a growing proportion of youth and females. Thankfully, this time-honored tradition remains strong.
Bob Humphrey is a freelance writer and Registered Maine Guide who lives in Pownal. He can be reached at: bob@bobhumphrey.com
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