A Concerning Trend: Support for Hunting on the Decline

Hunters comprise just 6 percent of the U.S. population, yet hunting has long enjoyed strong support from the non-hunting public. A pair of recent surveys, however, indicates that support is on the decline — a concerning trend that could signal new challenges on the horizon.

In 2024, 76 percent of adult Americans approved of legal hunting, a slight decline from 77 percent in 2023 and down 5 percent from 81 percent in 2021, according to surveys conducted by Responsive Management for the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports (CAHSS). Although the 2024 level of support is in line with the historical range for survey (conducted 11 times since 1995), wildlife officials are concerned by the recent, downward trend to a level not seen since 2011, when overall support for hunting registered 74 percent.

In fact, CAHSS officials were concerned enough about the 2023 results they decided to repeat the survey, typically conducted every three to five years, in 2024 to gauge whether the decline in support for hunting was an anomoly. While the 1 percent decline from the 2023 survey to the 2024 survey result was not considered “statistically significant,” taken together the surveys indicate public support for hunting is indeed declining. Each percent of change in the survey results represents roughly 2.53 million adult Americans, meaning there are approximately 12.65 million fewer Americans who support hunting today than five years ago.

Interestingly, when survey participants were asked whether it was OK for others to hunt, legally and within regulations, regardless of their personal opinion about hunting, the level of support for hunting rose to 87 percent. However, that’s down from 95 percent in 2011 and 92 percent in 2019.

“Although public support for legal, regulated hunting is still strong, I believe these findings are a clear call to all who participate in and advocate for hunting…that we must be much more conscious about how we communicate about hunting to ensure public support does not precipitously erode and, in turn, adversely affect our abilities to participate and employ it for wildlife conservation and other societal benefits,” said Brian Clark, deputy commissioner for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

Results are based on the 2024 survey of 2,015 Americans ages 18 and older, weighted for age, gender, ethnicity and geographic region to produce a national sample with a 95 percent confidence interval and a sampling error of ±2.18 percent. This means that if the full survey (available for download at cahss.org) were conducted 100 times, the results from 95 out of the 100 surveys would fall within 2.18 percentage points of each other.

Of particular note for Bowhunter readers, bowhunting is the most widely supported hunting method at 76 percent, 4 points higher than firearms hunting at 72 percent. In terms of hunting by species, deer (76 percent), turkeys (75 percent), ducks and rabbits (67 percent) and elk (64 percent) received the highest approval, while only a 38 percent minority approved of hunting wolves, mountain lions and grizzly bears.

The survey also examined attitudes about people’s motivations for hunting. Those who hunt for meat (84 percent), locally sourced food (83 percent), wildlife conservation (82 percent) and wildlife management (80 percent) garnered the most support, while support for trophy hunting (29 percent), for the challenge (47 percent) and for the sport (48 percent) received the least support.

Authors of the study suggested recent inflation and the higher cost of meat may have influenced the high approval rates for hunting for meat and/or food. Meanwhile, I believe the non-hunting public has a misconception about trophy hunting. It’s true many hunters want to shoot animals with large antlers, but by definition “trophy hunting” doesn’t account for everything involved in growing and harvesting mature animals. For example, hunters interested in trophy-sized animals often invest considerable time and money improving wildlife habitat in their hunting areas. They also typically pass up shots at smaller, less mature animals while trying to secure an opportunity at older, larger animals. That’s all part of trophy hunting. Trophy hunting also typically requires hunters to spend more days afield to be successful. That means they spend more money in the local community. And studies show hunting more days also improves the quality of the hunt for trophy hunters. Carrying this thought even further, having a quality hunt improves the relationship between trophy hunters and state wildlife agencies. You can’t stress enough the importance of a strong relationship between hunters and the agency that manages wildlife.

Clark, the Kentucky wildlife administrator who has dedicated much of his career to promoting hunting participation, said education is critical to helping non-hunters fully appreciate the many nuances of hunting and how it benefits both game and non-game species. That’s why the way hunters portray their pursuit and harvest of animals — whether through mainstream media, outdoor media, social media or simply personal interactions with non-hunters — is so critical. “I hope we can initiate more honest, intentional dialogue within the hunting community on this important topic,” Clark said.

In addition to hunting, the survey asked respondents about their feelings on recreational shooting. Interestingly, recreational shooting earned the same overall approval (76 percent) as hunting, with the same 5 percent decline in approval over the past five years. CAHSS officials noted that negative publicity regarding firearms, such as rising incidence of gun crime and mass shootings, may be taking a toll on attitudes about hunting, stating in the report’s executive summary that “there is a growing tendency among some Americans to conflate hunting with shooting, shooting with guns, and their negative attitudes on guns to negative attitudes toward hunting.”

It is also worth noting that approval for hunting is highest among rural residents (87 percent), men (84 percent), those in the Midwest (81 percent) and whites (80 percent). Meanwhile, support for hunting was lowest among blacks (61 percent), Hispanics (63 percent), those who live along the Pacific coast (65 percent), women (68 percent), suburbanites (69 percent) and urban dwellers (70 percent).

So, where does this leave hunters as we look to the future? Well, as our society becomes more urban and suburban, that’s certainly a strike against hunting. And any increase in anti-gun sentiment among the general public is also problematic, even though firearms hunting has nothing to do with crime and bowhunting has nothing to do with guns at all.

No one can say for certain what these numbers will be in another five or 10 years, but my guess is that fewer citizens will approve of legal hunting, unless something is done to market the value of hunting to non-hunters. Somehow, state wildlife agencies and conservation groups must recruit more hunters and convince non-hunting citizens to support hunting. Given the ongoing cultural shifts taking place across America, doing so will not be easy.

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