You already know about the tremendous contributions that park and recreation systems make to their communities. The services and programming offered by local and regional park and recreation agencies greatly enhance our neighbors’ quality of life. It is well documented that parks play an active role in leading to healthier, more engaging communities through their leadership in conservation, health and wellness and social equity.

Beyond these important contributions, did you know that local and regional park and recreation systems are sources of significant economic activity? This impact has not been measured on a national basis. That is, up to now.

For much of this year, NRPA has been working with the Center for Regional Analysis (CRA) at George Mason University to assess the economic impact of local and regional park agency spending. We were not only interested in measuring agencies’ direct spending, but also sought an estimate of the economic impacts that are indirect — that is, spending of vendors to support their park agency clients — and induced; for example, park agency and vendor employees spending their incomes.

To develop the estimate of economic activity, CRA Director Terry Clower and his team combined park and recreation agency expenditure and employment data from PRORAGIS with U.S. Census Bureau statistics to run an “input-output” economic model. Clower delivered his preliminary study findings during the 2015 NRPA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

So, What Did We Learn?

United States local and regional public park agencies’ operation and capital spending generated $139.6 billion in economic activity and supported almost 1 million jobs in 2013.

Let’s take a quick look at the details:

Local and regional public park agencies had more than 356,000 jobs on their payrolls and operations spending greater than $32.3 billion in 2013.

After considering the direct, indirect and induced impacts, these park systems’ operations spending generated almost $80 billion in total economic activity, boosted gross domestic product (GDP) by $38.8 billion and supported almost 660,000 jobs. These jobs were responsible for more than $24 billion in annual salaries, wages and benefits. 

In addition, local and regional park systems spent an estimated $22.4 billion on capital programs in 2013. This capital spending added another $59.7 billion in economic activity, $29.2 billion to GDP, $19.6 billion in labor income and more than 340,000 jobs. 

As large as the estimated economic impact of agencies’ spending is, we know these figures actually undercount the full economic impact of park and recreation systems. First, the capital spending estimates do not include expenditures appearing in annual budgets for depreciable assets. As a result, these estimates likely understate the total amount of capital spending (and their resulting economic significance). Second, these figures do not reflect visitor spending impacts since the vast majority of local and regional park visitors are from within the United States. Finally, the research does not capture the economic value of other benefits that local and regional park systems generate in terms of the environment, health and wellness and property values.

But even with the conservative study methodology, you can see that parks are an economic engine for their communities. Being a significant contributor to economic activity and employment adds to the already impressive list of benefits park and recreation systems bring to their towns, cities, counties and regions. In the coming months, we will talk about how to call greater attention to your agency’s economic significance to policymakers, legislators and the media in your community.

But first, keep an eye out for the release of the full economic study report later this fall. The NRPA/CRA report will include a set of case studies that look closely at the impact of the spending at different types of park facilities including regional parks, recreation centers, sport fields, community parks, cultural and historic facilities, aquatic centers, hiking and biking trails and golf courses. The full report will also provide more detail of the study’s methodology. 

We will continue the conversation then.

Kevin Roth is NRPA’s Vice President of Research.