U.S. national parks dataset
A free dataset of the 63 U.S. national parks: location, date established, area, visitation, elevation, and the Indigenous nations whose homelands each park is on. JSON and CSV, CC BY 4.0. Last updated 2026-09-16.
Columns
| Column | Type | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
slug | string | Our page id for the park. | RoamSchoolFamily |
name | string | Park name. | NPS |
state | string | Two-letter state or territory code. A park in more than one joins them with "/". | NPS |
npsCode | string | The four-letter NPS unit code. | NPS |
lat | number | Latitude of a point in the park, in decimal degrees. | RoamSchoolFamily |
lng | number | Longitude of a point in the park, in decimal degrees. | RoamSchoolFamily |
established | date | The date the park was established, as NPS gives it on the park page. | NPS |
areaAcres | number | Total area in acres, parsed from the park guide. | NPS |
visitation | number | Recreation visits in one year. | NPS visitor use statistics |
visitationYear | number | The year the visitation count is for. It differs by row. | NPS |
visitationSource | url | The page the visitation count comes from. | NPS |
elevationMinFt | number | Lowest point, in feet. | NPS |
elevationMaxFt | number | Highest point, in feet. | NPS |
nations | string | Indigenous nations whose homelands the park is on, separated by "; ". Not a legal boundary. | NPS and each nation |
lastResearched | date | The day we last checked this row. | RoamSchoolFamily |
url | url | Our guide page for the park. | RoamSchoolFamily |
Preview
name | state | established | areaAcres | visitation | visitationYear |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acadia National Park | ME | 1919-02-26 | 49075 | 3961661 | 2024 |
| Arches National Park | UT | 1971-11-12 | 76679 | 1463000 | 2024 |
| Badlands National Park | SD | 1978-11-10 | 242756 | 1006809 | 2022 |
| Big Bend National Park | TX | 1944-06-12 | 801163 | 561459 | 2024 |
| Biscayne National Park | FL | 1980-06-28 | 172971 | 512213 | 2024 |
License and how to cite
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Cite it as:
RoamSchoolFamily, U.S. National Parks Dataset, https://roamschoolfamily.com/data/, accessed [date].
Sources and freshness
Visitation comes from NPS visitor use statistics; the other facts from each park's NPS pages, and the nations from NPS and the nations' own sites. Each park's guide page lists its sources. Every row carries the date we last checked it. Found an error? Tell us: how to reach us.
Questions
How many national parks are in the dataset?
63, one row per national park. Monuments, seashores, and the other National Park System units are not in it.
Where do the visitation numbers come from, and for what year?
From NPS visitor use statistics. The year differs by row, from 2021 to 2025, and each row names its year and the page the count came from.
Can I use this in a class, an app, or a paper?
Yes. It is under CC BY 4.0: use it, change it, and share it, and credit RoamSchoolFamily with a link to this page.
Is this official NPS data?
No. We compile it from NPS pages and the nations’ own sites and cite each number. For official data, use the NPS statistics and open-data portals.
How often is it updated?
When we re-research a park. Each row has its own date, and the newest is 2026-09-16.