SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS 



Fifty million of the 130 million people in this 

 Nation over 12 years old went fishing, hunting, or 

 both, in 1960. This is nearly 2 out of every 5 

 persons in this age group. Approximately 45 mil- 

 lion fished during the year, including many who 

 also hunted. The total who hunted is roughly 20 

 million, the majority of whom are fishermen as well. 



A detailed study of participation in these sports, 

 including types of fishing and hunting, expendi- 

 tures, mileage traveled and the like, was made of 

 the more active sport fishermen and hunters, who 

 for the most part, were licensed or, if unlicensed, 

 either took part in these sports on several oc- 

 casions or reported at least a modest expenditure 

 for these activities. This study — the National Sur- 

 vey of Fishing and Hunting — revealed an esti- 

 mated 30 million sport fishermen or hunters in 

 1960, some 23 percent of the population 12 years 

 old and over. These more substantial partici- 

 pants reported around 650 million recreation days 

 of fishing and hunting and an expenditure of 

 close to 4 billion dollars on these pastimes. As 

 compared with a similar survey conducted in 

 1955, the number of these sportsmen had increased 



by over 5 million and their expenditures by 1 

 billion dollars. 



The remainder of this report is confined to the 

 results of the detailed study with appropriate 

 comparisons with the 1955 results. A further ex- 

 planation of the difference between the total 

 number of participants and the substantial partici- 

 pants, with whom this detailed report is concerned, 

 is given in the appendix to this report (see page 

 70). The two estimates were obtained from dif- 

 ferent surveys conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the 

 Census. Part of the difference can be attributed to 

 sampling variability and different survey procedures. 

 In the main, however, the diflference represents the 

 exclusion from the National Survey of Fishing and 

 Hunting of incidental participants: those who were 

 unlicensed and who fished or hunted on only one 

 or two occasions and reported virtually no expend- 

 iture. Available data indicate that the sport 

 fishermen and hunters included in the National 

 Survey account for approximately 95 percent of all 

 recreation-days of effort and 99 percent of all 

 expenditures for these activities. 



Ill 



