Top countries worldwide by number of museums 2021

According to UNESCO, the United States recorded the highest number of museums globally, with approximately 33,082 institutions as of March 2021. Germany and Japan followed on the list, with around 6,741 and 5,738 institutions, respectively. Overall, the current estimated total number of museums worldwide is nearly 104 thousand.

Leading countries worldwide ranked by estimated number of museums as of March 2021

Characteristic	Number of museums
United States	33,082
Germany	6,741
Japan	5,738
China	5,535
Russian Federation	5,415
France	4,811
Brazil	3,906
Italy	3,195
UK and Northern Ireland	3,183
Canada	2,245
Spain	1,732
Sweden	1,600
Thailand	1,526
Mexico	1,320
Poland	1,233
Argentina	1,183
Switzerland	1,129
Republic of Korea	1,102
Australia	919
Belgium	912
Hungary	813
Austria	776
Netherlands	688
Portugal	662
Ukraine	647

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Release date

April 2021

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Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

2021

Supplementary notes

The source specifies that the estimated number of museums is based on: “the Report on the implementation of the 2015 UNESCO Recommendation on Museums and Collections (figures collected by the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), based on the Museums of the World directory published by Saur, and figures from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in Washington, D.C., for American museums). These statistics have been amended from those provided by the 56 Member States for the monitoring of the Recommendation (in 2019), by data provided in the first UNESCO survey of museums and COVID, conducted in April 2020 by 45 UNESCO field offices, and by the present survey of Member States in March 2021”.

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