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The Economics of Alabama Anglers The Economic Impact of Anglers and Hunters in Alabama
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Number of Resident Alabama Anglers
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Number of Resident Alabama Hunters
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Total Expenditures
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Total Jobs
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Salaries and Wages
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Ripple Effect on the Economy
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628,000*
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312,000*
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$702 million*
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36,000**
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$105 million**
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$3.25 billion**
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*One in four Alabama anglers are non-residents, but 94% of the days spent fishing were by residents fishing.
State Tax Revenue Information
Sportsmen in Alabama pay $105.2 million in state sales tax, fuel tax, and income taxes. That could pay 2,937 teachers' salaries or fund 17,535 students' annual education costs. Management of fish and wildlife resources receive no General Fund money. Fishing licenses, hunting licenses and excise taxes pay for the management of fish and wildlife resources.
Jobs
**Sportsmen support 7 times more jobs in Alabama than Auburn University (33,338 jobs vs. 5,300 jobs).
Perspective
*Nearly one of every five Alabama residents hunt or fish.
**Annual spending in Alabama by recreational anglers is 13 times more than the cash receipts from the state's commercial seafood landings ($858 million vs. $64 million).
**Annually, Alabama sportsmen spend four and a half times more than the cash receipts for cattle and calves, the second leading agricultural commodity in Alabama ($1.7 billion vs. $363 million).
**Alabama anglers and hunters outnumber the combined populations of Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, and Huntsville, the state's four most populated cities ($1.02 milliion vs. 917,000).
* Numbers for population 16 years old and older from the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, US Fish and Wildlife Service.
 **Numbers provided courtesy of the Congressional Sportsmens Foundation (202-543-6850) who works on behalf of current and future generations of Americans to protect the right and increase the opportunity to hunt, trap and fish by serving as the sportsmen's link to Congress.
The 2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation is available from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Fishing in America:
- If fishing were ranked as a corporation, it would be 47 on the 2007 Fortune 500 list of America’s largest companies based on total sales. That’s well ahead of such global giants as Microsoft or Time Warner.
- At nearly 40 million, the number of American anglers is more than 33 times the average attendance per game at all Major League baseball parks combined.
- The more than one million jobs supported by anglers are almost three times the number of people who work for United Parcel Service in the U.S.
- The National Sporting Goods Association ranked fishing sixth out of 42 recreation activities, preceded only by walking, swimming, exercising, camping and bowling.
Top 10 Fishing States Ranked by Resident Retail Sales
| Florida |
$4,412,241,741 |
| Texas |
$3,366,961,760 |
| Minnesota |
$2,832,442,963 |
| California |
$2,677,352,981 |
| Michigan |
$2,099,582,373 |
| Pennsylvania |
$1,794,966,426 |
| Wisconsin |
$1,754,539,873 |
| South Carolina |
$1,492,735,367 |
| North Carolina |
$1,204,118,689 |
| Missouri |
$1,179,604,443 |
Hunting in America:
- If hunting were ranked as a corporation, it would fall in the top 20 percent of the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest companies, slightly ahead of such global giants as General Dynamics and Coca-Cola.
- According to the National Sporting Goods Association, more Americans go hunting than play softball or tennis.
- The number of U.S. hunters age 16 and over—12.5 million—is about three times the total number of people attending baseball games at Yankee Stadium over a full season.
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports roughly nine percent of all hunters (more than 1.1 million) are female.
Top 10 Hunting States Ranked by Resident Retail Sales
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Texas
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$2,334,329,825
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| Pennsylvania |
$1,734,082,321 |
| Wisconsin |
$1,394,050,097 |
| Michigan |
$1,334,000,075 |
| Missouri |
$1,227,087,240 |
| California |
$926,577,638 |
| Arkansas |
$877,430,173 |
| Ohio |
$859,321,607 |
| Alabama |
$846,607,925 |
| New York |
$788,091,714 |
Full reports can be downloaded from www.southwickassociates.com under the “free reports” link. The economic data was produced with the assistance of Federal Aid in Sport fish and Wildlife Restoration funds.
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