Economic Valuation

Skiers navigate along a mild slope of snowy hillside with snow and tree covered mountains behind them.
The National Park System provides significant benefits to park visitors and the broader American public - unparalleled recreation opportunities, clean air and water, and the preservation of natural and cultural resources for current and future generations.
Vibrant flowers grow in the foreground while granite mountains arise from the background among a sky with some clouds.
Economic valuation describes these benefits to human well-being in monetary terms. This provides a consistent and common metric to help inform sound management of park resources based on the public's preferences. Economic values are used in cost-benefit analyses of park policies, to determine losses to the public when park resources are injured, and to demonstrate the significant societal value supported by NPS parks and programs.
A colonial style light house stands on a hilltop next to an American flag and a foreground of sunflowers.

Resources

  • Find out what it means to be a natural resource economist.
  • Discover the first study of its kind to estimate the Total Economic Value of the NPS.
  • Oregon State University’s Recreation Use Values Database contains hundreds of documents of economic studies valuing recreation activities in the U.S. and Canada.

Last updated: April 3, 2025

Tools

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