Outdoor Participation Report 2018

A participant in outdoor recreation is defined as an individual who took part in one or more of 42 outdoor activities at least once during 2017.

by Outdoor Foundation

During the 2017 calendar year, a total of 30,999 online interviews were carried out with a nationwide sample of individuals from the US Online Panel of over one million people operated by IPSOS. The total panel is maintained to be representative of the US population for people ages six and older. Over sampling of ethnic groups took place to boost response from typically under responding groups. Data is based on Nielsen’s measure of the population in the United States, ages 6 and up, which is 298,325,103 individuals.

The 2018 participation survey sample size of 30,999 completed interviews provides a high degree of statistical accuracy. All surveys are subject to some level of standard error — that is, the degree to which the results might differ from those obtained by a complete census of every person in the US. A sport with a participation rate of five percent has a confidence interval of plus or minus 0.27 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

A weighting technique was used to balance the data to reflect the total US population ages six and above. The following variables were used: gender, age, income, household size, region, population density and panel join date. The total population figure used was 298,325,103 people ages six and older.

Published June 2018

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Inspiring the outdoor habit in kids and families by connecting research, knowledge, people and programs. With the goal of everyone experiencing the fun and joy of the outdoors once a week.

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