Outdoor Enthusiasts By The Numbers

Ever wonder how many people actually participate in the great outdoors? When you hear the phrase "outdoor enthusiast" or "great outdoors", what does that make you think of? Participating in the outdoors covers so many activities that I wanted to share some interesting numbers with you. The Outdoor Industry Association gives us these numbers for measuring activities of outdoor participants.

First, let's take a look at how many people venture into the great outdoors. 137.9 million of us participate in one activity or another outside. What's staggering is we have 10.1 billion outings per year....10.1 Billion, holy cow! I for one never thought the number was that great.

The most popular activities -  
1. Running, jogging, trail running  
2. Freshwater, saltwater and fly fishing.
3. Road biking, mountain biking, BMX 
4. Camping 
5. Hiking.

 What area of the country has the most participation. Here I was a little disappointed seeing the Northeast last in this category, let's go people get outside and enjoy!

1. Mountain
2. North Central
3. Upper MidWest
4. New England
5. West Coast.

Camping is a great family activity. Great for bonding and forgetting the everyday hassles and being able to slowdown and unwind. 45 million other Americans agree with me. Americans spend about 12 days per year out camping, and whats astounding, 88% of that is the hardy way...in a tent! Haha, we still like to be rugged and one with nature.

Most importantly, introducing children to the great outdoors will benefit ourselves in too many ways to list. If you have a chance to take a young one out and participate in an activity, please do! We may not know it but we're helping to preserve our environment while having a ton of fun!.