As you may have heard, our highly anticipated 2025 Parks and Recreation Trends Guide is now available to download for free!

This year’s guide is one of our most insightful ever, with our own proprietary data collected from parks and rec professionals just like yourself from across North America. We had over 600 responses from all levels of leadership in different agency departments and in roles from Recreation Directors to Park Rangers and Athletic Supervisors.

We then used this data and cross-referenced it with publicly available info from major industry sources, such as the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA).

As we analyzed our robust collection of info, there were a few key statistics that really stood out—some of which were quite unexpected!

In this article, we dive into the most surprising stats that we uncovered while making this year’s guide.

If you prefer to skip ahead, here’s a breakdown of what you’ll find further down in the article:

Unexpected Stats from Our Parks and Rec Trends Guide

Below are the 10 most surprising statistics that we uncovered while putting together our 2025 Parks and Recreation Trends Guide. Unless otherwise mentioned, these stats are pulled directly from the 600+ respondents we heard from, which included:

• 👥 76% in leadership roles
• 👤 24% in non-leadership roles
• 🏫 35% recreation employees
• 🌳 14% park employees
• 🏡 39% parks and rec employees

STAT #1: 76% have been in the industry for a decade or more

Three-quarters of all respondents shared that they have been working in parks and recreation for 10 or more years. Incredibly, a quarter of those surveyed (26%) have been in the industry for 20 or more years.

While it’s well known that parks and rec pros are passionate about what they do, the fact that so many have been working in the industry for decades is somewhat surprising—and certainly very impressive!

In our survey, we also asked people to describe what they love most about working in parks and rec. See below for a word cloud created from the most popular terms respondents provided, which clearly represents just how much parks and rec pros love making a positive impact on their communities.

STAT #2: 84% reported zero decline in staff morale

An astounding 84% of total respondents reported no decline in staff morale. In itself, this would be an unexpected statistic. But add to that the fact that almost half (49%) of these same people also felt understaffed, and you can see why this is such a shocking number!

Again, with the passion that so many parks and rec professionals bring to their roles, it makes complete sense that employees would maintain morale in the face of pressure. Still, it’s surprising that so many continued to feel positive under such operational demands.

STAT #3: The highest revenue-generating agencies felt the most strain

While an average of 51% of all leadership respondents shared that they felt understaffed in 2024, it was very surprising that the highest revenue-generating agencies felt this the most.

59% of leaders working for agencies generating $10 million or more annually felt understaffed last year. This was the highest percentage of leaders by agency size who felt understaffed, compared to four other buckets of revenue—all generating under $10 million in annual revenue.

This was unexpected, as it’s easy to assume that if an agency makes more money, they should be able to hire enough staff to reduce strain on existing employees.

STAT #4: 73% volunteer at some level within the industry

Almost three-quarters of all respondents reported that they volunteer at some level within the industry! This continues the narrative of what we already know—y'all are true community heroes.

As touched on above, parks and rec pros are incredibly passionate about serving their community. So, in a way, this stat makes a lot of sense. However, the data we collected also showcased just how stretched thin people are in this industry.

So, the unexpected element here is that so many parks and rec employees volunteer their time despite feeling strained during their regular workday.

STAT #5: More leaders volunteer, compared to non-leadership employees

In our guide, we established that volunteering is a key pillar of the parks and rec industry. Giving back is integral to the work that you do.

While this may seem obvious, the surprise here is in the split between leadership and non-leadership. Our results showed that the number of leadership volunteers is actually slightly higher than non-leadership.

This is unexpected, as, in many industries, volunteering is primarily done by those who are relatively young in their career. Giving away time for free is often a trade-off for the experience or networking needed to move upward in one’s profession.

This is clearly not the case with parks and rec, considering 56% of leadership respondents said that they volunteer, compared to 40% of non-leadership respondents.

STAT #6: 2024 disasters cost the U.S. a combined $182.7 billion

In 2024, the combined disaster cost in the United States was $182.7 billion, according to the Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters United States Summary from National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

The summary from NCEI also shares that each storm that took place last year in the U.S. resulted in a minimum of $1 billion in economic losses.

While the effects of extreme weather events are undoubtedly both terrible and incredibly substantial, the size of these numbers are—in a word—shocking.

Graph Source: National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

STAT #7: Only 3% of respondents report seniors are not engaged

When asked about their community members 60-years old and older, only 3% of total respondents said that this age group was not engaged at all with their parks and rec offerings. This data suggests that seniors are more actively engaged with parks and recreation activities, classes and programs than all other demographics.

It’s surprising that younger age groups are not as engaged as seniors, especially when you consider the community elements and affordability of most parks and rec offerings. Presumably, younger families would be interested in getting involved in their community and taking advantage of affordable classes and programs.

Yet, it is the likely more established—both socially and financially—Baby Boomers who are most actively participating in their local agency’s community offerings.

STAT #8: Websites got 313% more mobile visits, compared to desktop in 2023

Simply step outside and it’s undeniable that we, as a society, are obsessed with our mobile devices. People are always on their phones and likely visit a few websites during any given day. This, on its own, is not a surprising piece of information.

But the fact that Semrush uncovered in 2023 that triple the amount of website visits were from mobile devices compared to desktop is insane! 313% more websites visits came from mobile!

This huge difference in how people access the internet shows just how much need there is for websites to be mobile optimized and/or have their own mobile app—even in parks and recreation.

STAT #9: 30% are still relying on registration options that aren’t self-serve

While 70% of our leadership respondents reported that their customers are primarily using self-service options—online and mobile apps—for program registration, there are still a fair number who are not.

According to our survey results, 30% of leaders said that their customers are using non-self-service program registration options. This means that almost a third of these respondents’ communities are still relying on registration methods like in-person and by phone.

With the incredible number of people who make buying decisions online, it’s very surprising that there are still this many people who are not using self-serve tech to purchase their memberships, classes and programs.

STAT #10: Those in their 50s are on social media every day

When you think of social media addiction, what age group comes to mind? Is it the Millennials, who are now primarily in their 30s? Or the younger generation known as Gen Z, who are all in their teens and 20s?

Well, if you envision either of these groups, you may be surprised to learn that there’s an older demographic that’s equally as engaged in high social media usage. According to The Pull, a whopping 92% of Gen Xers—that's 40- and 50-year olds!—are on social media every day.

Honorable Mention: NRPA declares that print brochures are done

While this one isn’t exactly a statistic, the National Recreation and Park Association made an unexpected declaration in their 2025 Trends Report that’s definitely worth mentioning.

NRPA is predicting that “the printed recreation class program distributed to residents will be going the way of the dodo sooner than you think.”

While it definitely seems like it’s time for the parks and rec industry to do some catching up in the digital-marketing-and-communications area, this is surprising for one major reason. The printed agency brochure has been a staple in many communities for decades. And, well, change is hard!

Download Your Free Copy of Our 2025 Parks and Rec Trends Guide

Find out more about these stats in the context of our five key trends for 2025! Download your free copy today and discover:

• 📊 5 actionable trends based on data collected from hundreds of parks and recreation professionals from across North America
• 👀 Key takeaways for each trend, identifying how our findings will impact your year ahead
• 🙌 Things your agency can (and should!) do to stay ahead of customer wants and needs in 2025

Want to Learn More About Xplor Recreation?

Book a free demo with a member of our team to learn more about how Xplor Recreation can support your agency in staying ahead of customer wants and needs in 2025.