National Beauty
Celebrating America’s incredible countryside
America is the home of a lot of things: fast food, capitalism, some would say polarisation
But another one of these is its beautiful nature. So, for this week’s GoodStat, we’re taking a look at America’s National Parks and which of them are biggest and best
How many parks are there?
There are 423 ‘parks’ across the United States, all managed by the National Park System (NPS)
These parks cover 85 million acres (344 billion m²) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories. Considering the US has 1.9 billion acres of land, this makes up almost 5% of the country
However, this includes a wide definition of ‘park’ including national monuments and historic battlefields. There are 63 locations which are actually categorised as National Parks
On top of this, there are then 155 National Forests which are managed by the US Forest Service and have different rules about how they are preserved
Which state has the most parks?
Alaska has more land protected with National Parks than any other state. In total, 55 million acres of Alaskan land is classified in this way (two thirds of all National Parks)
The largest individual parks are also in Alaska, with Wrangell-St. Elias (8.3 million acres) and Gates of the Arctic (7.5 million acres) claiming the top two spots
The next largest outside of Alaska is then Death Valley, which spreads across California and Nevada (3.4 million acres)
The first National Park to ever be set up was Yellowstone, which was first to be created, by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, and is widely considered the world’s first National Park. It is also the second biggest US park outside of Alaska at 2.2 million acres
Which parks are the most popular?
In total, the NPS normally receives over 300 million visitors to all of its parks each year. Even with the pandemic, visitor numbers only dipped to 230 million in 2020 followed by this rebounding to 297 million in 2021
And since 1904 (when records began), the NPS reckon they have had 15.4 billion visitors to their parks
The most visited park is the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee which attracted 14.1 million visitors in 2021 (Blue Ridgeway Parkway was the only site managed by the NPS to get more visitors). Following this is:
- Zion National Park (5 million visitors)
- Yellowstone National Park (4.9 million)
- Grand Canyon National Park (4.5 million)
How does this compare to other countries?
While the US has a lot of National Parks, it is nowhere near the highest
Australia has more National Parks than any other country at 685, which makes up 335,062 km². Thailand and India are next highest with 147 and 116, respectively
Then there is Canada. While there are only 46 Candian National Parks, they have a combined area of 370,000 km², more than any other country
But these are all massive countries, and some smaller ones have dedicated a much higher proportion of their landmass to its National Parks. Zambia, Israel and Costa Rica lead the way here with 32%, 30% and 25% of their country, respectively
Check out these GoodStats if you’d like to read more about Nature and the Environment:
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