UK Camping Statistics 2024

Camping. It’s a bit “marmite,” isn’t it? You’ve probably come across those who swear by the freedom of sleeping in tents and others who tell you they couldn’t possibly sleep somewhere with no running water and plug sockets.

The whole staycation market boomed during the Covid pandemic when we were all holidaying at home. And camping enjoyed a surge in popularity then too. But just how popular is this pastime post travel restrictions? And where do people most like to go camping in the UK?

We’ve surveyed the public, crunched the numbers, had a gander at their Google habits and present our camping statistics round up for 2024.

The Pop Up Version - Quick Facts and Figures

If you’ve not got time for all the detail, here’s the quick version and the most important figures:

• 42.2% of people in the UK go camping at least once a year
• More than 1 in 25 Brits are particularly keen campers and say they camp at least once a month
• The Lake District is the UK’s most popular camping spot based on Google search data

How Often do we go Camping?

We surveyed 2000 people in the UK between 4th and 6th January last year and we asked them:

• On average, how often, if ever, do you go camping?
  • More than once a month (please specify how many times a month)
  • Once a month
  • Once every 2 months
  • Once every 3 to 5 months
  • Once every 6 to 11 months
  • Once a year
  • Less than once a year (please specify once every how many years)
  • Never

This enabled us to find out lots about the camping habits of Brits and the average number of times in a single year that we camp.

We found out:

• On average, people in the UK go camping 1.58 times per year
• However, it’s hugely skewed to men. Men camp an average of 2.22 times per year and women just 0.96

Here’s the data:

Men Are Likelier to Go Camping than Women

There’s some variation by gender here and it’s quite considerable.

We found:

• Men go camping more than twice as many times per year as women
• While the majority of women (63.81%) say they never go camping, this figure drops drastically to just 40.67% amongst men
• The majority of men go camping at least once a year (54.67%)
• Under a third of women (30.08%) go camping at least once a year according to our statistics

So, the data certainly points to the fact that camping is considerably more popular amongst men.

Camping Popularity By Age

In much the same way as we saw variation between genders, we also see variation in the popularity of camping by age group.

When we start to segment the data by the age range of the respondents, we find:

• The 25 to 34 year olds camp most often, with an average of 2.79 camping trips per year
• This is followed closely by those aged 16 to 24 (2.53 times per year)
• Almost 1 in 10 25 - 34s says they go camping at least once a month
• Those aged 55 and over are the only age group where the majority say they never go camping, with over three quarters of them (76.07%) stating such

If we look purely at how many in each age group go camping at least once a year, we see the following:

Regional Variations in Camping Popularity

So age and gender influence the likelihood of us going camping and indeed how frequently we do so. But does the region in which we live influence how often we camp?

Camping Demand in Search - the Facts

If ever you want an inside peek into the psyche of a population, check their Google search history! Or, you know, in the absence of access to that, you can take a look at Google’s data (through kwfinder.com) to look at estimated searches per month for all sorts of words and phrases from recipes to health advice and everything in between.

We’ve all done it - headed off to Google to do research before booking or buying anything. And as a nation, we make billions of searches in Google each month.

So we took a look at data and stats around searches for camping equipment and camping holidays over time. Here’s what we found:

Table below updated

We learned:

• There are over 450,000 searches per month in Google UK for “Campsites”
• 4 man tents are the most sought after size (if we bse it on searches in Google)

But of course, with something as seasonal as camping in the UK, we see fluctuations over time. And if we look at trends going back to 2019 (pre-Covid) for some of the more popular searches, this is what we see:

Table below updated

Unsurprisingly, demand for camping equipment and campsites is very much skewed towards summer. But we can see a sizable increase over time too.

If we look at “campsites” as a search for example, we can see:

• July 2019 - 368,000 searches in Google UK
• July 2020 - 823,000 searches in Google UK
• July 2021 - 673,000 searches in Google UK
• July 2022 - 1,000,000 searches in Google UK
• July 2023 - 823,000 searches in Google UK

So from July 2019 to July 2022, we saw a 171% increase in demand for campsites based on Google search data, before a slight drop off in 2023.

In July 2020 and 2021, the UK was in between versions of lockdowns and overseas travel restrictions which would explain an astronomical increase in all domestic travel and holiday options.

But even in summer 2022, not only did we see the demand sustained, but it increased again. In summer 2023 we saw things fall slightly potentially as the result of overseas travel being so readily available again with fear over restrictions and travel complications eased.

In July 2022 we were not in any sort of pandemic related lockdown. There was travel chaos at airports and so forth. But overseas travel was possible.

However, it looks like Brits have taken to camping and might well want to stick with it!

Most Popular Camping Spots in the UK

In order to find out where demand is highest, we headed back to kwfinder.com and we searches for things like “Camping lake district,” and “camping cornwall” to find out where most of the UK searchers are hoping to pitch their tents.

We didn’t have an exhaustive list of locations, but instead based our searches on popular hotspots according to campsites.co.uk’s list of destinations. Here’s what we found:

• The Lake District appears to be the most sought after spot for UK campers with an average of 42,600 searches per month (average of last 12 months) for “Lake District camping”
• Cornwall comes in second with 31,900 searches for “cornwall camping”
• The New Forest takes third place with 31,100 searches for its variant

Camping on Social Media in 2024

We all love to share our travel and adventures on social media so we took a look at the hashtags related to camping on Instagram.

As of January 2024:

• There are 47.8 million Instagram posts with the hashtag #camping
• 5.3 million for #campinglife
• 4.8 million for #glamping

So getting out and camping (or glamping!) is a big deal for social too!

Going Wild or Glamming It Up

While most of us may associate camping with tents on campsites and things like toilets and facilities to hand if you need them, it’s not always quite like that.

In fact, you might describe your standard campsite as something of a happy medium between the extreme versions - wild camping and “glamping.”

“Wild camping,” is technically only legal in Scotland within the UK and there some of the national parks require you to buy a permit at busier times of the year to prevent overcrowding.

At the other end of the spectrum “glamping” is for the luxury lovers. Forget your tent. Glampsites offer their guests anything from fancy shepherd’s huts to well kitted out yurts. Many have en suites and some even come with hot tubs.

So what’s the demand like here.

Well:

• “Wild camping” was searched 10,000 times per month on average in 2022
• “Glamping” was searched 86,300 times per month on average in 2022

So it seems a lot more of us are taken with the idea of soaking up a little luxury than we are of going wild.

Market Size

The camping market size is phenomenal.

• In 2019, it was reported that the UK camping market was worth over £2.2 billion
• Fast forward to 2024 and this is now reportedly £2.83 billion

Camping in 2024 - What the Statistics Tell Us

The statistics confirm what many of us keen campers already knew - that camping enjoyed a boom during the pandemic and this is likely to stay. With millions of us pitching our tents each year, the camping industry is likely to see further growth in 2024 and beyond.

And if you’re considering getting involved, you can shop a range of camping tent and accessories at ubuy.

Our other research case studies:

• Smartphone Penetration Statistics for Saudi Arabia
• Video Gaming Statistics
• Global Skateboarding Statistics
• Dubai Tourism Statistics
• Smartphone Penetration Statistics for South Africa
• Global Rollerblading Statistics
• Music Streaming Statistics