The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) revealed new data showing outdoor activity participation keeps growing in the U.S., reaching its highest level in the last 15 years.
The Outdoor Participation report’s headline figure is 54%, which is more than half of Americans aged six and over who participated in at least one outdoor activity in 2021. The outdoor recreation participant base grew 2.2% to 164.2 million participants.
The full report has some interesting findings for the camping industry to consider, mainly that camping amassed some 45.9 million participants in 2021, which is actually down two million on 2020’s figure.
Despite that, camping remains in the top five outdoor activities for Americans, alongside hiking, running, fishing, and cycling, according to a report.
Camping was revealed as the leading gateway for Americans into outdoor participation as it was revealed that 98.3% of camping trips have cross participation with other outdoor activities.
The future of the camping industry also looks bright, according to the report, with 16.2% of Americans aged six to 17 participating in camping in 2021, and the average number of camping outings per participant in that age bracket per year standing at 9.2.
Camping’s participation levels have also shown growth of 6.8% on average over the last five years.
This article originally appeared on Camping Trade World.