[TN-Bird] FW: Birding Demography and Economics

Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
TN birders:

From Kimberly Smith at ARBIRD: interesting publication on birding from Erin 
Carver of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services: Birding in the United States: A 
Demographic and Economic Analysis.  Among the highlights:

--In 2006, the year of the study sample, 47.7 million people (age 16 or more) 
in the U.S. were considered to be birders (21% of the pop), 20 million of which 
were birding away from home.  If you are skeptical, the publication says, 
"The...survey uses a conservative definition.  To be counted as a birder, an 
individual must have either taken a trip one mile or more from home for the 
primary purpose of observing birds and/or closely observed or tried to identify 
birds around the house."  How about broadly conservative?

--The average age of birders was 50, with 40% of all birders age 55 or more, 
and 27% of those 55 or more were considered birders.  Only 15.6% of birders are 
less than 35 years old.  The graying of birding?  Will there be birding 30 
years from now, or will it become extinct like egg and bug collecting?

--30% of birders have income $75,000 or more.

--37.3% of birders have college education or higher, and 28% of those with 
college attainment are birders.

--54% of birders are female.

--88% of birders are white, 3.4% are black where the black pop for the U.S. is 
about 13-14%.

--People are more likely to bird if they reside outside Metropolitan 
Statistical Areas (MSA): 27% of people outside MSAs are birders, compared to 
17% in MSAs of 1 million or more.

--TENNESSEE ranks 8th in the U.S. with 31% of the populations involved in the 
activity, first in the South.  The next highest rank is for Arkansas which was 
at 13, with Kentucky ranked 14.

--Where do these birders go?  The biggest states are Wyoming, Hawaii, Vermont, 
Montana and New Mexico.  Among other things, this indicates that ABA birders 
are not a representative subset of all birders (re this sample study).  States 
with the least out-of-state birding participation were Kansas, Louisiana, 
Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Rhode Island.

--From 2001 to 2006 there has been a statistically significant 8% increase in 
the number of birders birding away from home.

--In 2006, birders spent about $12 billion on trips and $24 billion on birding 
equipment (if direct, indirect and other effects of these expenditures are 
included, the total output is $82 billion).  These expenditures created 671,000 
jobs with an average of $41,000 per person/year.  Taxes were $6 billion State 
and $4 billion Federal.

So get out there and bird!

Kevin Breault
Brentwood, TN 

--

-------------- Forwarded Message: -------------- 
From: Kimberly Smith <kgsmith@xxxxxxxx> 
To: ARBIRD-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: Birding Demography and Economics 
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:56:20 +0000 


a fascinating little pamphlet... 

the average birder in the US in a 50 year old white woman with higher education 
and income than average... I know some of you... hahaha 

Arkansas ranks 13th in number of people that participate in birding and has 
nearly 750,000 birders were in Arkansas in 2006, of which 79% were Arkansas 
residents... 

People who live in rural areas are more likely to watch birds...  

********************************************************* 
Kimberly G. Smith 
University Professor of Biological Sciences 
Department of Biological Sciences 
University of Arkansas 
Fayetteville, AR 72701 
479-575-6359 
fax: 479-575-4010 email: kgsmith@xxxxxxxx 



=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen.  The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
      To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
                    tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________ 
                To unsubscribe, send email to:
                 tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
            with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
  TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 
       Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
        endorse the views or opinions expressed
        by the members of this discussion group.
 
         Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
                 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                ------------------------------
                Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
                         Cleveland, OH
                -------------------------------
               Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
                          Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
         
          Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
              web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                          ARCHIVES
 TN-Bird Net Archives at http://www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/

                       MAP RESOURCES
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com

_____________________________________________________________

Other related posts: