List of most-visited museums in the United States

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Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Denver Museum of Nature and Science
National Gallery of Art, East Building, Washington DC
Museum of Modern Art, New York City

This is a list of the most-visited museums in the United States in 2020. It is based upon the annual survey of museum attendance by the Art Newspaper published in March 2021, the TEA-AECOM Museum survey, published in September 2021, and some annual reports from the museums themselves.

The figures in this survey show the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused all of the museums on the list to be closed for long periods of time, and which greatly reduced tourism to the United States. Attendance at the twenty most-visited museums in The United States dropped by 80.1 percent, from 49,763,000 visitors in 2019 to 7,884,000 visitors in 2020.[1]

number of visitors in 2020
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City 1,125,000 (2020) (down 83 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
Denver Museum of Nature and Science Denver 991,000 (2020) (down 39.4 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C. 730,000 (2020) (down 82 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
Museum of Modern Art New York City 706,000 (2020) (down 65 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
National Museum of Natural History Washington, D.C. 572,638 (2020) (down 86.4 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
Huntington Library San Marino, California 547,000 (2020) (down 34 percent from 2019) 2020[2]
Houston Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 401,935 (2020) (down 68 percent from 2019) 2020[2]
Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington,D.C. 387,403 (2020) (down 80 percent from 2019} 2020[3]
Art Institute of Chicago Chicago 375,000 (2020) (down 78 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
National Museum of African American History and Culture Washington, D.C. 368,000 (2020) (down 81.6 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Bentonville, Arkansas 353,123 (2020) {down 50 percent from 2019) 2020[2]
National Portrait Gallery and National Museum of American Art Washington, D.C. 321,266 (2020) (down 81 percent from 2019) 2020[2]
Field Museum of Natural History Chicago 316,000 (2020) (down 78.8 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
Udvar-Hazy Center[ii] Chantilly, VA 311,548 (2020) (down 75 percent from 2019) 2020[4]
National Museum of American History Washington, D.C. 311,000 (2020) (down 88.8 percent from 2019 2020[1]
Getty Center Los Angeles 267,035 (2020) (down 81 percent from 2019) 2020[2]
National Air and Space Museum Washington, D.C. 267,000 (2020) (down 91.7 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Richmond, Virginia 260,350 (2020) (down 49 percent from 2019 2020[2]
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Boston 249,881 (2020) (down 80 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
California Science Center Los Angeles 240,000 (2020) (down 81.4 percent from 2019) 2020[1]
Whitney Museum of American Art New York City 233,180 (2020) (down 78 percent from 2019) 2020[5]
Solomon Guggenheim Museum New York City 154,495 (2020) (down 88 percent from 2019) 2020[5]

Notes and Citations[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m TEA-AECOM Museum Index 2020, published September 2021
  2. ^ a b c d e f The Art Newspaper, "Most visited art museums in 2020", published March 2021
  3. ^ Smithsonian Institution Newsdesk, retrieved November 4, 2021
  4. ^ Smithsonian Institution News Desk, September 27, 2021 for 2020, published September 2021
  5. ^ a b The Art Newspaper, 2 April 2021

See also[]

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