A new report issued by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, "Economic Impact of Hunting and Target Shooting in America," says the annual financial impact to the U.S. economy by sportsmen and women is about $110 billion. The figures were compiled from 2011 spending activity reports.
Astoundingly, the report says that the more than 866,000 jobs supported by hunting and target shooting would rank as the seventh largest employer in the world, ahead of IBM or McDonald's. And the $48 billion in retail sales exceed those of Fortune 100 Companies like Coca-Cola, Federal Express or Disney.
The report goes on to say that expenditures by hunters and target shooters result in combined state, local and federal taxes of more than $15 billion, an annual collection that would pay more than 336,000 firefighters.
So which states generate the most revenue from these activities? A state-by-state breakdown of the economic contributions from combined hunting and target shooting activities shows that Texas hunters and shooters generate $5.1 billion in economic activity, followed by Michigan and New York at $4.6 billion and Wisconsin at $4.2 billion. Rhode Island, the smallest state, came in with an impressive $109+ million.
"These impressive economic numbers show that the popularity of target shooting and hunting are good for industry and good for America," said NSSF President Steve Sanetti.
The "Economic Impact of Hunting and Target Shooting in America" report, which was produced jointly by NSSF and the Association of Fish and WIidlife Agencies, as well as the individual "Hunting in America" and "Target Shooting in America" reports, are available at nssf.org/research.
