Contents
- U.S. sport shooting participation statistics in 2021
- Sport shooting participation by age and sex
- Participation by residence, household income, and race
- Target shooters’ hunting and fishing participation
- Hunting-related spending among firearm target shooters
- Sources
U.S. sport shooting participation statistics in 2021
In 2021, an estimated 47 million U.S. residents aged 6 and older participated in firearm target shooting. The estimate counts unique people, not repeat visits or range attendance. An estimated 19 million residents in the same age group participated in archery target shooting. These are separate activity estimates; the figures provided do not show how many people took part in both.
The totals describe participation during 2021, rather than the number of shooting sessions, trips, or events. They also should not be read as current-year estimates. For a broad comparison, firearm target shooting reached more people than archery target shooting in that year, while the demographic patterns varied by activity.
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Target Shooting in the United States: Participation, Demographics, and Relationship with Hunting and Fishing, conclusion, p. 18.
Sport shooting participation by age and sex
The report gives both participation rates within demographic groups and the makeup of the people who participated. These answer different questions. For example, a participation rate describes the share of all people in a group who target shot; a shooter’s share describes the composition of the target-shooting population.
| Group | Firearm target shooting participation rate | Archery target shooting finding |
|---|---|---|
| Males, age 6+ | 22% | 70% of archery target shooters were male |
| Females, age 6+ | 9% | 29% of archery target shooters were female |
| Ages 6–15 | 12% | 10% participated in archery; this age group made up 22% of archery target shooters |
| Ages 16–17 | 14% | — |
| Ages 18–24 | 16% | — |
| Ages 25–34 | 19% | — |
The contrast between the two archery measures is useful: 10% is the participation rate among U.S. residents aged 6–15, while 22% is the share of all archery target shooters who were in that age range. The latter indicates that children and teens formed a notable part of archery participation, but it does not mean that 22% of all young people participated.
In firearm target shooting, the reported rate was higher for males than females. At the same time, females accounted for 29% of firearm target shooters, so the participation base was not exclusively male. These are descriptive comparisons from the 2021 report, not explanations of why people took part.
Source: same report, Table 1, p. 9; sex discussion, p. 10.
Participation by residence, household income, and race
Residence shows one of the clearest differences in the report. In 2021, 27% of rural residents aged 6 and older participated in firearm target shooting, compared with 13% of urban residents. For archery target shooting, the rates were 11% among rural residents and 5% among urban residents. These are rates within each residence group, not the proportions of all target shooters who lived in those areas.
The distribution of shooters provides a different perspective: 65% of firearm target shooters lived in urban areas and 35% lived in rural areas. The two results can coexist because the number of residents in each category differs. A higher participation rate in a smaller population does not necessarily mean that group supplies most participants.
The report’s population-size categories add another detail. Among residents in metropolitan areas with at least 1,000,000 people, 12% participated in firearm target shooting. Among those living outside a metropolitan statistical area (MSA), the rate was 25%. Separately, 48% of archery target shooters lived in the report’s category for metropolitan areas with at least 1,000,000 residents. These population-size and urban/rural classifications are distinct measures and should not be treated as interchangeable.
Household income figures also describe participation rates within income brackets. The rate was 18% among residents in households earning $75,000–$99,999 annually and 19% among those in households earning $150,000–$199,999. The supplied figures do not establish a smooth pattern across all income levels, so these two brackets should be read as specific comparisons rather than evidence of a general income trend.
By race, the report recorded firearm target shooting participation rates of 18% among White residents, 21% among Asian American residents, and 10% among African American residents, all aged 6 and older. Separately, 79% of firearm target shooters were in the report’s White category. That composition figure is not a participation rate; it is the share of shooters within the report’s classification.
Source: same report, Table 1, p. 9; residence discussion, p. 10.
Target shooters’ hunting and fishing participation
Target shooting overlapped with hunting and fishing, but it was not limited to people currently pursuing either activity. Among active hunters—defined by the report as people who hunted during 2019–2021—66% also participated in firearm target shooting in 2021. The corresponding share for active anglers, people who fished during 2019–2021, was 36%.
Firearm target shooting also appeared among people whose hunting or fishing had lapsed. In 2021, 47% of people whose hunting had lapsed four to five years participated in firearm target shooting; the rate was 31% for those whose hunting had lapsed six or more years. For fishing, the corresponding rates were 22% and 15%.
The overlap also ran in the other direction: many target shooters did not report a history of hunting or fishing. In the report’s distribution of firearm target shooters, 52% had never hunted and 27% had never fished. Among archery target shooters, 52% had never hunted and 27% had never fished. These percentages describe target shooters’ histories, while the active and lapsed figures above describe target-shooting participation within hunting or fishing groups.
For archery, 35% of active hunters and 16% of active anglers participated in target shooting in 2021. Meanwhile, 56% of archery target shooters were active anglers under the report’s three-year definition. Together, these measures show substantial overlap in some groups, alongside a sizeable portion of target shooters with no hunting or fishing history.
Source: same report, Tables 2 and 3, p. 14; discussion, pp. 13–15.
Hunting-related spending among firearm target shooters
The report compared hunting-related equipment spending in 2022 between hunters who had participated in firearm target shooting and hunters who had not. Hunters in the target-shooting group spent an average of $112 on rifles, compared with $52 among other hunters. For handguns, the averages were $76 and $44, respectively.
These are averages for purchases whose primary purpose was hunting, according to the report’s spending question. They are not estimates of all firearm purchases or all spending by target shooters. Target-shooting status refers to participation in 2021, while the expenditure figures concern 2022.
The report also found that hunters who target shot with firearms averaged 19 hunting days in 2022, compared with 16 days for hunters who did not target shoot with firearms. The comparison describes an association in these reported groups; it does not show that target shooting caused higher equipment spending or more hunting days.
Source: same report, “Hunting-Related Equipment Expenditures,” p. 16.