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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

Implications of declining attendance at children's museums

Impacts Experience (www.impacts-experience.com/ ) provides audience behavior analytics for visitor-serving cultural organizations, including museums, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, and performing arts organizations. In their latest Know Your Own Bone (KYOB+) (www.colleendilen.com/ 2026/ 08/ 05/ midyear-market-potential-2026/ ) publication, they reported on 2025 attendance across these organizations, compared with pre-COVID 2019 levels, and projected attendance for 2026 and 2027.

One type of cultural venue they track is children's museums. They found that 2025 attendance was only 91% of 2019 levels and they project that it will reach only 91.5% in 2027.

Children's museum attendance has declined 9%

They attributed the decline to the declining birthrate and financial pressure on families, as well as to the idea that “being ‘welcoming for children' stopped being a unique differentiator once zoos, aquariums, and science museums all started aiming squarely at families, too.” 

This aligns with the shift in family time we've been reporting on. Rather than focusing solely on traditional kid-specific activities, parents want to visit out-of-home destinations that not only work for their children but also offer engaging experiences that fulfill them personally.

As Impacts Experience suggests, zoos and aquariums certainly meet that criterion. In fact, family entertainment centers (FECs) need to recognize that zoos and aquariums are serious competition. One thing they offer that FECs don't is transformative experiences for both children and adults, including new knowledge and the potential for a change in values about the natural world. Adults are increasingly seeking experiences that are not only fun and offer memorable social connections but also provide transformative discovery and learning.

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