BIG $$$ From The Hunting and Fishing Business In Tennessee

The 994,000 people that hunt or fish in Tennessee have a tremendous impact on the state’s economy.
In 2011, these outdoorsmen and women spent $1.8 billion with a ripple effect of $2.9 billion, and supported 26,389 jobs in the state. New data released recently by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) documents the importance of sportsmen and women’s activities in Tennessee and across the nation.
Intended to provide a series of “sound bites” that resonate within the outdoor community as well as the general public, the CSF data spotlights some of the most compelling information about hunters and anglers in every state. For example, 994,000 people (resident and non-resident) hunted or fished in Tennessee in 2011, well more than the total population of Knoxville, the state’s third largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (994,000 vs. 704,000). In addition, Tennessee’s resident sportsmen and women could fill the Tennessee Volunteers’ home football stadium nine times (923,000 vs. 100,000). Perhaps most importantly, hunters and anglers supported 26,389 jobs in Tennessee in 2011, nearly twice the amount of employees of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the state’s largest employer (26,389 vs 15,000).
Nationwide, the impact is even more impressive. There are more than 37 million hunters and anglers age 16 and up in this country – about the same as the population of the entire state of California. These sportsmen and women spent $90 billion on hunting and fishing in the United States in 2011.