Some of us have been told over the years that the hunting population in the US is on the decline. However, as a matter of fact, the hunting population is actually increasing and has been for years. 

In 2021, which is the last year publicly recorded, there were 38.59 million hunting licenses, tags, permits and stamps in the U.S. — that is more than twice the number of total hunters (all species, big and small game). Unfortunately, because of the nature of how hunting licenses are issued, that’s only an approximate estimate and the real number of hunters in the United States could be different. With that being said, Texas sold the most licenses, over 1 million; and Rhode Island sold the fewest, around 8,000. Those numbers represent individual hunters in each state, but many hunters buy licenses in several states. 

Harvest reports and license sales provide each state’s data. This information helps wildlife agencies track trends and set management policies. States often collect the data differently, but it’s done most commonly with surveys, check stations, and voluntary or mandatory reporting. Even states with mandatory reporting use scientific estimates to determine or double-check harvest data.

However, the question still remains, is the hunting industry really on the decline? Everyone loves some good statistics about their favorite past-time.So, here are five quick facts:

1. According to a 2016 report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the hunting industry supports more than 525 thousand jobs, which is more than three times that of the oil and gas extraction industry. 

2. From 2020 to 2021, the hunting and trapping industry grew in market size from $888.5 million in 2020 to $890.1 million in 2021. This is less than 1% growth between years but still shows that the industry is growing overall.

3. Hunting continues to be an overwhelmingly male pursuit. 90 percent of US hunters aged 16 years and older are male, representing 10.3 million people and 8 percent of the total US population. In contrast, only 10 percent of hunters are female. That’s a mere 1.1 million people and not even 1 percent of the US population.

4. Hunters spent approximately $27.1 billion on hunting in 2016. Individual hunters spend an average of $1,896 on hunting each year, according to a 2011 report, representing approximately 5.5% of their total income.

5. In 2021, the top 10 states with most total hunters were Texas (1,094,753), Pennsylvania (945,731), Georgia (724,269), Tennessee (694,458), Wisconsin (666,670), Michigan (642,242), North Carolina (609,131), New York (550,868), Minnesota (545,300), and Oklahoma (512,724.) Back in 2004, it was Texas (1,027,908), Pennsylvania (1,048,731), Michigan (870,432), Tennessee (725,110), New York  (696,679), Wisconsin (689,099), Minnesota (585,104), Missouri (539,062), North Carolina (433,135), and Arkansas (402,493.)

It is important to note that the future of hunting remains bright in 2022, and those of us who hunt know that it is a lifestyle, not just a sport. Granted, there may be a lot of people who disagree with this, but at the end of the day, statistics don’t support those opinions. In 2004 there were about 15 million licensed hunters in the U.S. Granted the numbers dipped slightly below that total during the following decade, but then peaked at 15.6 million in 2018. Whatever side of the line you are on, it is hard to deny that recreational hunting provides a lot of benefits for our country and the younger generation deserves to reap the benefits as much as we have.