Share of museum visitors in the U.S. 2023, by ethnicity

According to a 2023 survey conducted in the United States, individuals who identified as Asians or Asian Americans were the most likely to have visited a museum over the previous 12 months. While 40 percent of Asian or Asian American respondents reported having been to a museum in the past year, 27 percent of people identifying as white stated the same.

How big is the museum market in the United States?

The market size of the museum industry in the United States amounted to over 11 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, growing over the previous year but staying below the figures reported prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Similarly, the number of employees in the U.S. museum industry increased to around 90 thousand in 2022 but remained lower than in pre-pandemic years.

What are the most popular U.S. museums?

Despite the challenges posed by the health crisis, the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. was the U.S. institution ranking highest among the most visited museums worldwide in 2022, followed by Washington D.C.'s National Gallery of Art and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2022, attendance at the Metropolitan Museum exceeded three million, showing a sign of recovery after the impact of COVID-19 but still falling short of pre-pandemic levels.