Public gardens serve more visitors, employ more people, have higher revenue, and enjoy more volunteer support than the average museum – according to data compiled in the 2025 National Museum Survey (NMS).

The results of the inaugural National Museum Survey were released in August. The Survey was conducted by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in 2025 and is intended to reflect data from the most recent fiscal year ending in 2024. The Survey was interrupted by the attempted closure of IMLS in 2025, which resulted in a delay publishing results to August, 2026.

Association Associate Director, Advocacy Richard A. Doran is one of several Subject Matter Experts appointed by IMLS to help develop the National Museum Survey.

The FY2025 National Museum Survey will open on September 21.

See the full results in the data portal here.

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Types of Institutions

IMLS identified 16,246 museums across the country. 14% of all museums submitted data, with 11% of Botanical Gardens/Arboreta/Nature Centers represented. Data was weighted by IMLS to produce extrapolated results. Public Gardens are represented as Botanical Gardens and Arboreta and are combined with Nature Centers in the survey when presenting results.

On the NMS, respondents could select a “primary” discipline and then “secondary” discipline.

There are more than 2,300 Botanical Gardens and Arboretums identified as either a Primary or a Secondary Discipline and an additional 2,000 Nature Centers.

Botanical Gardens/Arboreta/Nature Centers were the third highest primary discipline (1,540) after History Museums and Art Museums. One fifth of all museums identify “Botanical Garden/Arboretum/Nature Center” as a secondary discipline.

Visitation

Over 1.12B people visited a museum of any kind.

Over 166 million people visited museums with a primary discipline of Botanical Garden/Arboretum/Natures Center, averaging over 108K visitors per site – more than 39K visitors than the average museum. 36% serve more than 50K visitors, third among all museums behind Zoos & Aquariums (86%) and Children’s Museums (59%).

The Association’s most recent Collective Impact estimate (FY2025) put visitation to APGA members at 164M. APGA members include many organizations (e.g. Zoos, Historic Houses) with different “primary disciplines” and areas (e.g. curated parks and open spaces) that are not counted in the NMS data.

55% offer free admission (vs. 45% for all museums). Of the rest, 24% charge under $10 and 21% charge more than $20.

Employment

33% of primary discipline Botanical Gardens/Arboreta/Natures Centers have more than 10 FTE staff. This is 11% higher than all museums (22%).

92% have more than 10 Volunteers – first among all primary disciplines and 26% higher than all museums (66%).

Financial

62% of primary discipline Botanical Gardens/Arboreta/Natures Centers have budgets under $1M.

The Total Revenue is estimated at over $6.64B with the average revenue/site at $4.31M.

Total Expenses amounted to $6.41B with an average expenses/site of $4.23M.

Both Revenue (+$844K) and Expenses (+$1M) are higher than the average museum, reflecting the higher costs of maintaining living collections also noted by Zoos & Aquariums.

Governance

54% report having a parent institution.

48% are private, non-profit institutions.

31% classify themselves as “Government”.

15% are “Academic”.

COMPARISON DATA

The table below shows two columns of APGA data (FY2023 Garden Benchmarking Median data and FY2025 Collective Impact) and two columns of IMLS NMS Data (FY2024 Botanic Gardens/Arboreta/Nature Centers and All Museums). APGA Data reflects APGA Members Only while the NMS compiles Botanic Gardens and Arboreta with Nature Centers when presenting data.

  FY2023
Benchmarking Median		 FY2025
Collective Impact		 IMLS NMS 2024
BG/A/NC		 IMLS NMS
All Museums
Museums Represented 106 477 1,540 16,246
Serve 50K+ visitors   49.2% 36% 22%
More than 10 FTE staff 30.5 FTE Median 49.6% 33% 22%
More than 10 Volunteers 198 Median   92% 66%
Total Visitors   134M 166M 1.12B
Visitors/Site 130,860 Median   108,025 68,423
Total Revenue   $1.645B
(combined budget)		 $6.64B $56.98B
Revenue/Site $2.881M Median   $4.31M $3.46M
Total Expenses     $6.61B $53.54B
Expenses/Site $2.955M Median   $4.29M $3.25