National wildlife refuges form a large public-land network across the United States and its territories. The system manages 96 million land acres and 760 million marine acres, reaches every state, and includes more than 570 refuges. The figures below bring together the scale of that network, how people use it, and how its protected lands are distributed.
Contents
- National system at a glance
- How visitors use refuges
- Visitor experience and local connections
- Access, volunteering, and urban refuges
- Land and acquisition statistics
- Wilderness by state
- Large designated wilderness areas
National system at a glance
The National Wildlife Refuge System spans 50 states and 5 U.S. territories. According to FWS What We Do, it includes more than 570 national wildlife refuges, 38 wetland management districts, and 5 marine national monuments. A further 63 refuges contain wilderness areas, while the system includes more than 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers.
The headline land and water totals show why “wildlife refuge” can describe very different landscapes. The system manages 96 million land acres alongside 760 million marine acres. Those totals include refuges and related protected places across a broad national geography rather than one continuous preserve.
The 2024 FWS Annual Report of Lands Data Tables lists 572 national wildlife refuges. Its Table 3 reports a grand total of 146,797,720.82 refuge acres. The table’s total is an administrative land figure, while the broader “What We Do” overview separately presents the system’s 96 million managed land acres and 760 million marine acres. Because the measures come from different FWS materials and definitions, they should be read as reported totals rather than combined through new arithmetic.
The system also has a substantial public-facing role. FWS What We Do reports 67.03 million annual visits. Wildlife observers and birders account for 42.17 million visits, nature programs for 2.15 million, hunting for 2.63 million, and fishing for 8.61 million. These activity figures describe annual visits by activity category; they are not a count of unique people and should not be added together as though every visit represented a separate visitor.
How visitors use refuges
Wildlife observation is the largest activity measure in the supplied visitation summary. The 42.17 million annual visits attributed to wildlife observers and birders are followed by 8.61 million fishing visits, 2.63 million hunting visits, and 2.15 million visits for nature programs, according to FWS What We Do.
The 2025 National Visitor Survey provides a different view because it reports the share of surveyed visitors who participated in activities during the previous 12 months. In that survey, 59% participated in wildlife observation, 56% participated in hiking or walking, and 46% participated in bird watching. These percentages describe participation among surveyed visitors, not the number of annual visits in the systemwide activity totals.
| Measure | Reported figure | Source and scope |
|---|---|---|
| Annual refuge visits | 67.03 million | FWS What We Do; annual visits |
| Wildlife observation and birding visits | 42.17 million | FWS What We Do; annual visits |
| Fishing visits | 8.61 million | FWS What We Do; annual visits |
| Hunting visits | 2.63 million | FWS What We Do; annual visits |
| Nature program attendance | 2.15 million | FWS What We Do; annual attendance |
| Surveyed visitors participating in wildlife observation | 59% | FWS National Visitor Survey 2025 Press Release; previous 12 months |
| Surveyed visitors participating in hiking or walking | 56% | FWS National Visitor Survey 2025 Press Release; previous 12 months |
| Surveyed visitors participating in bird watching | 46% | FWS National Visitor Survey 2025 Press Release; previous 12 months |
The difference between the two kinds of measures matters for local history and heritage research. A refuge can be understood through annual use counts, survey responses, or the activities visitors report over a defined period. Each statistic answers a different question about public engagement with protected landscapes.
Visitor experience and local connections
The first National Visitor Survey cycle completed in 2023, with 141 refuges participating, according to the FWS National Visitor Survey project page. The project page says refuges surveyed every five years are used to track visitation trends over time. That recurring design places current visitor experience data in a longer measurement framework.
The 2025 FWS National Visitor Survey Press Release reports more than 20,000 survey responses from 141 stations. Those stations represent approximately 70% of total Refuge System visitation. The same source reports 97% satisfaction with overall refuge experiences, 96% satisfaction with the condition of trails and boardwalks, and nearly 90% satisfaction with refuge signage.
Local repeat use is another notable result: 86% of local visitors had visited the refuge multiple times. More than 90% of refuge visitors traveled by private vehicle. Together, these figures describe a system that is both a destination for recreation and a recurring part of nearby communities’ landscapes. They also show why roads, signs, trails, and boardwalks are important parts of the visitor experience even when the central purpose is wildlife protection.
The economic reach is quantified in the same 2025 press release. Refuge visitation supports regional economies to the tune of $3.2 billion per year and supports more than 41,000 jobs. The release also states that more than 69 million Americans visit national wildlife refuges every year. This national visitor estimate and the 67.03 million annual visits reported in FWS What We Do use different wording and should remain separate reported measures.
Access, volunteering, and urban refuges
Public access across the refuge network includes 4,197 miles of public trails and boardwalks, including water and snow routes, according to FWS What We Do. The same source reports 7,352 public road lane miles. These figures indicate the scale of infrastructure used to reach and move through refuge landscapes, but they do not describe the condition or availability of every individual route.
Volunteer participation adds a human measure of stewardship. Refuges had 15,301 volunteers who served 818,828 hours, according to FWS What We Do. The system also has 180 Friends groups supporting refuges. These groups and volunteers connect the administrative network to local knowledge, public programming, habitat work, and community support.
The refuge system is not limited to remote places. FWS What We Do identifies 101 urban wildlife refuges and 32 partnerships in cities. Urban refuge statistics are useful when considering heritage because they place conservation within metropolitan histories and everyday public spaces. The figures do not state how many people live near each urban refuge, but they establish that urban settings are a defined part of the national system.
The National Visitor Survey project page also states that 12 to 16 American Conservation Experience interns are employed per year as survey recruiters. This is a survey-support measure, not a total for all conservation internships or all refuge staff.
Land and acquisition statistics
The 2024 FWS Annual Report of Lands Data Tables provides a detailed breakdown of how refuge acreage entered the system. The table lists 81,075,461.76 acres of purchased refuge land and 4,837,761.35 acres donated by purchased land. It also lists 750,241.50 acres purchased under agreement or lease.
Other categories include 56,314,615.04 acres acquired by other federal agencies, 846,166.05 acres reserved from the public domain, 878,002.08 acres acquired by exchange, 124,915.65 acres acquired by easement or lease-related interest, and 746,861.59 acres acquired through another acquisition category shown in Table 3.
The same table lists $2,755,517,789 in purchased-land acquisition cost. This is the reported acquisition cost for the purchased-land category, not a valuation of every refuge acre and not a current replacement cost. The table’s grand total is 146,797,720.82 refuge acres across Table 3.
These categories help explain why a refuge’s history may involve purchases, federal transfers, leases, easements, exchanges, and public-domain reservations rather than one single creation event. They also caution against treating the system as a simple tally of privately purchased land.
Wilderness by state
The 2024 FWS Annual Report of Lands Data Tables reports a national refuge wilderness grand total of 20,702,708.76 acres. The state figures supplied in that report show a sharply uneven distribution.
| State | Wilderness acres within national wildlife refuges |
|---|---|
| Alaska | 18,692,615.03 |
| Arizona | 1,343,444.00 |
| South Carolina | 29,000.00 |
| North Dakota | 9,732.00 |
| Oklahoma | 8,570.00 |
| California | 9,172.00 |
| Arkansas | 2,143.80 |
| Washington | 804.50 |
| Oregon | 608.06 |
| Ohio | 77.00 |
| Wisconsin | 29.00 |
Alaska accounts for the largest reported state total at 18,692,615.03 wilderness acres, while Arizona has 1,343,444.00. South Carolina has 29,000.00 acres, North Dakota 9,732.00, California 9,172.00, and Oklahoma 8,570.00. The other listed totals range from 2,143.80 acres in Arkansas to 29.00 acres in Wisconsin.
These are wilderness acres within national wildlife refuges, not the total wilderness acreage of each state. The figures also represent the states listed in the supplied 2024 table excerpt; they should not be interpreted as a complete state-by-state ranking beyond those reported entries.
Large designated wilderness areas
Several individual refuges account for especially large designated wilderness totals. In Alaska, the FWS Annual Report of Lands Data Tables lists 8,000,000.00 acres in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 2,274,066.27 acres in Togiak National Wildlife Refuge, 1,354,247.00 acres in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, and 1,300,000.00 acres in Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
In Arizona, the same report lists 803,418.00 designated wilderness acres in Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, 516,200.00 in Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, 14,606.00 in Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, and 9,220.00 in Imperial Refuge Wilderness. The supplied table spells the first name as “Caboza Prieta”; the standard geographic name is presented here for readability while retaining the reported acreage.
Other reported refuge wilderness areas include 29,000.00 acres at Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, 3,660.00 at Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, and 3,244.00 at Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. The Cape Romain figure corresponds to the South Carolina total listed above.
The 2024 land tables also include marine and monument-related figures. Rose Atoll Marine National Monument includes 8,609,045 acres managed by the Service, including 1,613 acres as Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument includes approximately 3,144,320 acres. Hanford Reach National Monument includes the 161,486-acre Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge and 32,965 acres outside the refuge boundary.
These examples show the range of places covered by wildlife refuge statistics: wilderness in Alaska and Arizona, coastal and island refuges, river landscapes, urban partnerships, and marine monuments. The reported dates and definitions remain important because acreage, visitation, and survey measures describe different parts of the national conservation story.