SEM Park Selection

Socioeconomic Monitoring (SEM) Visitor Survey park selection is designed so that each year's park units combine to improve understanding of all park types, including understudied parks. As the number of studied parks grows, so too does the representativeness of the data as a whole and the capacity to draw service-wide conclusions. This is achieved by:

1. Identifying all parks with adequate visitor use data (5 years) for sampling and analysis purposes
2. Classifying these parks as one of 4 categories: Nature, Recreation, Historic-Urban, Historic-Other
3. Splitting each category into low and high visitation groups (8 total groups)
4. Randomly selecting 3 parks from each of the 8 groups, for 24 total selected

Flow chart of park selection for Socioeconomic Monitoring Visitor Surveys

NPS Social Science Program

2024 Selected Parks (fieldwork in progress)

Park Type	High Visitation	Low Visitation
Historic, Non-Urban	Fort Frederica NM Vicksburg NMP Wilson's Creek NB	Fort Larned NHS Homestead NHP Lyndon B Johnson NHP
Historic, Urban	Boston NHP Kennesaw Mountain NBP Minute Man NHP	Casa Grande Ruins NM Roger Williams NMem Salem Maritime NHS
Natural	Arches NP Grand Canyon NP Hawai'i Volcanoes NP	John Day Fossil Beds NM Mammoth Cave NP Organ Pipe Cactus NM
Recreation	Indiana Dunes NL Lake Mead NRA Point Reyes NS	Amistad NRA Padre Island NS Saint Croix NSR

2023 Selected Parks (published October 2024)

Park Type	High Visitation	Low Visitation
Historic, Non-Urban	Canyon de Chelly NM Fort Donelson NB Klondike Gold Rush NHP Alaska	Aztec Ruins NM Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS Tuskegee Airmen NHS
Historic, Urban	Franklin Delano Roosevelt Mem National Capital Parks-East San Juan NHS	Federal Hall NM Mary McLeod Bethune NHS Stones River NB
Natural	Badlands NP Cuyahoga Valley NP Everglades NP	Dinosaur NM Great Basin NP Lassen Volcanic NP
Recreation	Delaware Water Gap NRA George Washington Mem PKWY Golden Gate NRA	Gauley River NRA Greenbelt Park Prince William Forest Park

2022 Selected Parks

Park Type	High Visitation	Low Visitation
Historic, Non-Urban	Cumberland Gap NHP Mount Rushmore NM Vanderbilt Mansion NHS	Fort Bowie NHS Fort Laramie NHS Martin Van Buren NHS
Historic, Urban	Gateway Arch NP Korean War Veterans NMEM Thomas Jefferson NMEM	General Grant NMEM Morristown NHP Thomas Edison NHP
Natural	Capitol Reef NP Grand Teton NP Rocky Mountain NP	Guadalupe Mountains NP Isle Royale NP Pinnacles NP
Recreation	Cape Hatteras NS Natchez Trace PKWY National Capital Parks Central	Catoctin MP Lake Meredith NRA Niobrara NSR