10 most visited National Parks

There is a large amount of National Parks throughout the United States of America. These parks are operated by the National Park Service and can only be established by an act of the US Congress. Yellowstone was the first natural area to be designated a National park in 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant; since then a plethora of other regions have joined the list, and the USA currently boasts 59 National Parks. To qualify as a National Park, the natural area must meet certain criteria. The 10 biggest parks (according to total visitors from the establishment year) and its’ attendance trends are represented in the following schemes.

So, according to the data, the number of visitors of the most parks has been increasing since 1980’s. However, some parks such as  George Washington Memorial Parkway  has lost its visitors in 2016 in comparison to 1987. During the last 20 years the attendance of all 10 parks has increased. Nevertheless, Blue Ridge parkway is an exception. 19 million people visited Blue Ridge parkway in 2000 and only 15 million in 2016.

In any case, there is a growing interest (and it is projected to increase) among locals and tourists in attending recreation areas and national parks.

References:

National parks of the USA. Attendance trends. is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
developed at  Master in City and Technology,
Digital tools & Big Data in 2019 by:
Student: Linara Salikhova
Faculty: Diego Pajarito