Resources
- Find the latest information on the outdoor recreation economic statistics at BEA’s outdoor recreation website.
- Stay informed about BEA developments by reading The BEA Wire, signing up for BEA’s email subscription service, or following @BEA_News on X.
- Historical time series for these estimates can be accessed in BEA’s Interactive Data Application.
- Access BEA data by registering for BEA’s Data Application Programming Interface.
- For more on BEA’s statistics, see our online journal, the Survey of Current Business.
- For upcoming economic indicators, see BEA’s news release schedule.
- Details on the preparation of BEA’s national statistics are in NIPA Handbook: Concepts and Methods of the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts.
- For complete information on the sources and methods used to estimate gross domestic product and personal income by state, see BEA’s gross domestic product by state and state personal income and employment methodologies.
Definitions
Gross domestic product (GDP) or value added is the value of the goods and services produced by the nation’s economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production. GDP is also equal to the sum of personal consumption expenditures, gross private domestic investment, net exports of goods and services, and government consumption expenditures and gross investment.
Gross output is the value of the goods and services produced by the nation’s economy. It is principally measured using industry sales or receipts, including sales to final users (GDP) and sales to other industries.
Current-dollar estimates are valued in the prices of the period when the transactions occurred—that is, at “market value.” Also referred to as “nominal estimates” or as “current-price estimates.”
Chained-dollar estimates are calculated by taking the current-dollar level of a series in the base period and multiplying it by the change in the chained-type quantity index number for the series since the base period. Chained-dollar estimates correctly show growth rates for a series but are not additive in periods other than the base period.
Outdoor recreation employment consists of all full-time, part-time, and temporary wage‐and‐salary jobs in which the workers are engaged in the production of outdoor recreation goods and services. Self-employed individuals are excluded from employment totals.
Outdoor recreation compensation consists of the pay to employees (including wages and salaries and benefits such as employer contributions to pension and health funds) in return for their outdoor recreation-related work during a given year. Pay to the self-employed is excluded from compensation but included in value added.
Outdoor recreation value added (also referred to as GDP) consists of the value of outdoor recreation goods and services produced less the value of expenses incurred for their production. The activity of self-employed individuals is included in value added.
Geography of outdoor recreation
Outdoor recreation is measured by place of production, not residence of consumer. The value of manufactured goods, such as boats, is assigned to the state where they are produced, even if the goods are not ultimately used there. Services, such as sailing lessons, are assigned to the location where they are consumed. The value of services provided by retailers, such as boat dealers, is also assigned to the location of sale. The services of retailers (known as trade margins) are not measured by sales but are most akin to sales less the cost of goods sold. The production of imported goods is excluded from outdoor recreation, but the value of the services of retailers selling the imported goods is included.
Outdoor recreation spending and production are allocated to states by applying state-level data to detailed, underlying national values. The underlying estimates are distributed to states before aggregation to publication levels to provide the most accurate state values possible. Statistics are primarily based on time-series data generated from the U.S. Census Bureau Economic Census and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. Additional government and nongovernment data sources are used to supplement the census data and to refine and evaluate the statistics.