The American outdoor recreation economy continues to grow, reaching $1.3 trillion in economic activity and employing 5.2 million people in 2024. That’s up from $1.2 trillion in 2023 and up 84% since 2012.
“Outdoor recreation is more than activity to us. It’s a driver of community health, environmental stewardship and economic vitality,” said Christy LaCurelle, the head of the Motorcycle Industry Council, in a presentation by the Bureau of Economic Analysis — or BEA — releasing the latest annual statistics for the industry.
Since 2017, the bureau has tracked outdoor recreation, delivering numbers that anchor support for the sector not just as a fun diversion but as an economic engine for rural communities. Since 2012 — the bureau’s analysis reached back five years from its launch in 2017 — the nation’s outdoor recreation economy has grown 84%. It now accounts for 2.4% of the nation’s overall economy and employs 3.2% of all workers in America.
In Colorado, the BEA numbers show outdoor recreation contributing $18.1 billion to the state’s economy, accounting for 3.3% of the overall economic activity in the state. Outdoor recreation counts 137,762 jobs in the state, making up 4.5% of all workers. (That’s up from 132,594 jobs in 2023.) Those employees earn $9.4 billion, accounting for 3.2% of all wages in Colorado.
Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy is the 10th largest in the country. It has made the top 10 ever since the BEA started measuring it.
Not surprisingly, winter sports are the primary economic driver in Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy, accounting for $1.6 billion in activity. Colorado shops selling outdoor stuff contribute $3.7 billion and lodges and restaurants contribute $3.1 billion.
The numbers show that recreation “is not only central to our way of life, it’s a powerful and growing economic engine,” said Conor Hall, the head of the Colorado outdoor recreation office. Hall pointed to a $900-million increase in economic activity around outdoor recreation between 2023 and 2024 as well as 5,000 new workers who earned $800 million as “underscoring the momentum” tracked in Colorado communities by the 2025-2029 Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan.
Breck Epic mountain bikers race on the Wheeler trail, Aug. 17, 2023, near Breckenridge. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)That 242-page plan, or SCORP, was released in late 2024 and shows $52.1 billion in spending around outdoor recreation in 2023. The SCORP also shows 404,000 jobs in the outdoor recreation realm. The state uses surveys to estimate spending while the BEA uses tax receipts from outdoor businesses. While both are accurate methods of measuring economic activity, it’s difficult to compare the two tallies. Not surprisingly, the outdoor recreation boosters in Colorado prefer to use those SCORP numbers, which show a bigger role for their sector.
Whatever yardstick is used, the numbers carry the same message, Hall said.
“Together the datasets make clear that investing in outdoor recreation means investing in jobs, thriving communities and Colorado’s long-term economic strength,” he said.
All these numbers need a bit of context. That $1.3 trillion of economic activity is defined by the BEA as “gross output,” based on total spending of $696.7 billion in 2024. The bureau measures “core” outdoor recreation like biking, boating, hunting, motorbiking and skiing as well as peripheral but still outdoorsy stuff like festivals and amusement parks or playing field sports.
Those core activities account for about half of the total impact of outdoor recreation. The other half comes from what the bureau calls “supporting outdoor recreation,” which includes $253 billion in spending on travel and tourism adjacent to recreation. So when the bureau tracked a rare downturn during the pandemic of 2020, most of that decline was attributed to the collapse in travel.
Outdoor recreation is bigger than the country’s mining, utility and agriculture industries. But it does not have the political sway of those venerable contributors. That is changing too, but not as quickly as outdoor recreation’s economic impact.
That’s why the BEA numbers are so important to an industry laboring to establish itself as an economic heavyweight alongside established industries like energy, mining and agriculture. Establishing that financial footing gets outdoor recreation a stronger voice in public policy decisions around public lands.
So watch the growing chorus of outdoor recreation champions — led by the 110,000 businesses represented by the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable — trumpet that trillion-dollar figure as it pushes lawmakers toward a closer embrace of what was long considered the thing you do on weekends. Those trillion-dollar boosters — along with 24 state recreation offices — are pushing outdoor recreation as the key for rural economic development, the best path to protect public lands and essential for turning more Americans toward healthier and happier lifestyles.
Topping the list of political priorities is implementation of the first-of-its-kind EXPLORE Act, which former President Joe Biden signed into law in January 2025 after a rare unanimous approval by the House and Senate. The bill improves recreational access to public lands and removes bureaucratic hurdles around managing them. The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable last year found that 996.9 million days of recreation on 640.6 million acres of public lands stirred $71.8 billion in visitor spending, or more than $351 million a day, with most of that landing in rural communities.
“Preserving access to public lands and waters continues to remain a priority for all of us thinking about this as a high return on national investment,” said Jessica Turner, the president of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, on Thursday as she unveiled the new BEA stats. “We need to fully fund the recreational trails program … and we need to reduce regulatory headwinds and increase certainty for our outdoor recreation businesses through trade stability and tax incentives.”
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