The next time you're looking to relax, you might want to grab a pair of binoculars and head outside to join in one of the fastest growing hobbies: birding.
More than 96 million people in the U.S. have taken part in bird-watching or bird conservation activities, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey from 2022, the latest year with data available. That's more than 35% of the nation's population aged 16 and over, and more than double the number from the previous survey in 2016.
Most people, 95% or 91.1 million, observed wild birds around the home, while 44% or 42.6 million people also took trips away from home to observe wild birds, according to the survey.
"Sometimes we internalize this idea of wilderness and nature as being synonymous with grand sweeping vistas like Yellowstone or Yosemite," Ed Yong, Pulitzer-winning science writer, told Axios. "What birding has taught me is that nature is really just around me all the time."
Of all of the wildlife in the United States, birds were the greatest focus of wildlife watchers interviewed in 2022. Around-the-home participants age 16 and older numbered 146.5 million -- 99% of all wildlife-watching recreationists, according to the survey. To give some context, 259 million people age 16 or older lived in the U.S. in 2022 and of those, 56% watched wildlife around their homes.
The data shows 78% of around-the-home wildlife watchers lived in metropolitan areas. The percentages of populations that watched wildlife around their homes ranged from 52% in the Mountain Division to 65% in the East South Central Division. The East North Central, West North Central, South Atlantic, and East South Central had participation rates above the national average of 56%. The division that had the highest number of around-the-home wildlife watchers was the South Atlantic (31.3 million participants).
Males had a higher participation rate than females and other genders -- with 59% of males, 54% of females, and 58% of other genders enjoying around-the-home wildlife watching activities in 2022, the survey shows.
Birding is also big business. The survey shows 63% of all dollars spent in 2022 on wildlife-related recreation was due to wildlife watching, whose participants spent $250.2 billion -- an average of $2,188 per spender. Recreationists purchased $118.6 billion worth of equipment for wildlife watching, including $24.6 billion on binoculars, cameras, bird food, and special clothing, and $85.1 billion off-road vehicles, campers and boats.
Wildlife watchers also spent $42.1 billion on trips pursuing their activities, according to the survey.
"It also underscores how wildlife, especially birds... are economic engines that sustain local, regional, and national economies," Amanda Rodewald, senior director of the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said in an article. "Because so many birds are migratory... revenue [from wildlife-related recreation] in a given state may be linked to healthy environments elsewhere. For instance, ducks from the Prairie Pothole region fly to Arkansas, where hunters might pay to harvest them, or birders might travel and spend money to watch them."
The survey doesn't mention any reason for the increase in numbers, but it noted that results should not be directly compared to previous survey results due to changes in methodology.