U.S. Hunting and Shooting Trends
Sharp Reductions in Hunting Participation, Target Shooting in U.S.
Dec 8, 2008
Following general consumer trends in outdoor recreation, participation in public hunting has fallen sharply. There will also probably be more room at the shooting range, as surveys show that club shooting has tailed off. The details are contained in a report commissioned by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Future Trends
The numbers track the apparent future trends of declining visits to state and national parks as well as less camping and fishing. The implications could affect business trends in related sectors, including sales of everything from hunting guns to shooting glasses and other shooting accessories.
Citing data tracking hunting license sales back to 1980, the report shows that hunting apparently peaked in 1982, when nearly 17 million licenses were sold. The latest available figures, for 2005, show a steady drop to just over 14.5 million. Separate survey data show that hunting participation may have fallen as low as 12.5 million by 2006.
Similarly, the target shooting sports have seen recent declines. Total target shooting participation peaked at around 24 million in 1993. Data from 2005 put the level currently at around 18 million. The report notes that the raw numbers don’t tell the whole story, because population increases mean that the proportion of people shooting targets is even lower.
Clay Shooting, Archery Hunting Fall
Even the recently popular clay pigeon shooting games can’t stave off declining numbers. Despite a jump in participation in 2003, data for 2004 show a reduction back to a trend line that has otherwise remained fairly level since 1990. The trend held for all shotgun sports, including sporting clays, trap shooting and skeet shooting.
Archery hunting and target archery aren’t immune, either, according to the report. After peaking at slightly over 9 million archers in 1990, the trend line dipped under 7 million in 2004 despite a slight upward blip in 2002 and 2003.
Causes of Hunting and Shooting Declines
Much of the cause is attributed to demographic trends in the U.S. Foremost in the list of factors is the increasing urbanization of the population, and the report’s authors note that fewer urbanites hunt than those who live in rural areas. With nearly 80 percent of the U.S. population living in cities, this effect is expected to continue into the foreseeable future.
Four features of urban life appear to be mostly responsible for this effect, the report suggests. First, fewer people grow up in the hunter-friendly environment of rural areas, diluting the hunting culture. Urban dwellers also tend to be less comfortable around firearms, the authors indicate.
Second, urbanization contributes to a deteriorization of a hunter’s social group that is centered around the shooting sports. The third aspect is that hunting land is frequently gobbled up by sprawling cities. Fourth, hunters have to travel farther to find a good hunting spot as a result of urban growth.
Another demographic consideration is the aging of the U.S. population. Because young adults are more likely to hunt than are older adults, hunting participation will likely continue to decline as the median age continues to increase.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that hunting and the shooting sports are in decline, the report paints an optimistic picture of how the trends can be slowed or possibly, in some cases, reversed. It presents 196 action steps that wildlife departments and agencies can implement to assure that the rich hunting and target shooting heritage in the U.S. continues well into the future.
Source: The Future of Hunting and the Shooting Sports: Research-Based Recruitment and Retention Strategies, National Shooting Sports Foundation, Duda MD, et. al., 2008
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