Hunting License Sales 2022-2023

Hunting license sales held relatively steady in 2023, with over 80% of participating states reporting a 5% or less change from 2022.

In early 2021, the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports (Council) conducted a survey of state wildlife agencies and found that among the 40 reported states there was an overall increase in hunting license sales of 4.9% from 2019 to 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic stretched into a second year, 2021 saw Americans’ demands for outdoor recreation and escape remain high, especially among nonresident hunting license buyers, but overall hunting license sales dipped by 1.9%. To continue identifying hunting license sales trends, the Council revisited this study in early 2023, with results revealing further slippage in 2022 sales, this time by 3.1% compared to 2021 levels. In 2023 however, overall hunting license sales fell just 0.3% across the 47 states that participated in the Council’s annual study, indicating a relatively steady participation rate nationwide.

Working with Southwick Associates, the Council collected monthly resident and nonresident hunting license sales data from 47 state wildlife agencies to quantify and compare 2023 trends to 2022. Among the 47 reporting states:

Overall, 2023 hunting license sales decreased by just 0.3% compared to 2022. Resident hunting license sales decreased by 0.2% and nonresident sales were down 0.6%.
Even so, 24 of the 47 states (51%) saw an overall increase in the number of licenses sold in 2023 compared to 2022.
License sales were down overall in three of the four geographical regions (Northeast, Southeast, and Western), with percentages ranging from -2.1% to -0.6%, while the Midwest region experienced a slight increase of 1.0%.
Overall license sales by month in 2023 were mixed when compared to 2022, with increases and decreases both occurring in six of the twelve months. Sales volatility was especially pronounced in May and June.
When analyzed by quarter, overall sales were up slightly in three out of four, with a decrease occurring only in Q3.

The Council will continue to work with the hunting community to expand and improve recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) efforts to ensure a strong future for hunting.