How Many Golf Courses Are in the US? #
There were 10,076 golf course and country club establishments with paid employees in the United States in 2023 (Census County Business Patterns, 2023). They employed 324,224 people and paid $13.3 billion in wages.
The count was also 10,076 in 2022. Census publishes the identical figure for both years, which is unusual enough that we pulled the API directly for each year to confirm it rather than assume a data error.
The 2022 Economic Census counted 9,126 firms operating those establishments. The 950-establishment gap between firms and premises is the multi-course operators: management companies and club groups running more than one property.
What the Federal Count Includes, and What It Leaves Out #
County Business Patterns is "an annual series that provides sub-national economic data by industry for establishments with paid employees," in Census's own description. The phrase does real work here.
Establishments with paid employees. A course with no payroll at all does not appear. In practice very few golf courses run without staff, so this matters less here than it does in industries full of sole operators.
NAICS 71391 is golf courses and country clubs together. Census defines the industry as establishments operating golf courses other than miniature, plus establishments operating golf courses alongside dining and other recreational facilities known as country clubs. A daily-fee public course and a private member-owned club with tennis courts and a dining room are the same industry code.
Miniature golf is not in this industry. It is classified in 71399, All Other Amusement and Recreation Industries, along with driving-range-only operations in some cases.
Counts published by golf industry bodies run above the federal figure because they count facilities on a different basis, including municipal and other facilities that may fall outside CBP's employer-establishment scope. If you are comparing two golf course counts, check the basis before concluding one is wrong.
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The Scale Behind the Count #
Golf is the largest employer among all the recreation industries we track, and by a wide margin.
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Establishments | 10,076 | Census CBP, 2023 |
| Firms | 9,126 | Census Economic Census, 2022 |
| People employed | 324,224 | Census CBP, 2023 |
| Annual payroll | $13.3 billion | Census CBP, 2023 |
| Industry receipts | $31.3 billion | Census Economic Census, 2022 |
| Average wage | $40,974 | Calculated, Census CBP 2023 |
| Employees per establishment | 32.2 | Calculated, Census CBP 2023 |
| Receipts per establishment | $3,107,844 | Census EC 2022 / Census CBP 2022 |
At 324,224 employees across 10,076 sites, the average course carries 32 people on payroll. That is more than a bowling center (20.2), more than a gym or racquet facility (17.0) and nearly four times a sports instruction business (8.5). The full comparison across 26 recreation industries puts golf on the land-and-membership rung. A golf course is a grounds-maintenance operation with a hospitality business attached, and the staffing reflects it.
One caveat on the employment figure: CBP measures employment in the March 12 pay period. For an industry with a northern-state season that starts in April, that timing understates peak staffing at a large share of courses.
How Many Are Changing Hands #
Golf courses move through the small-business market in small numbers but with unusually good credit outcomes. Between FY2024 and the third quarter of FY2026, the SBA approved 153 loans to golf courses and country clubs, of which 44 were to open a new facility and 19 financed a change of ownership (SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA extracts, as of June 30, 2026).
On the FY2020 and FY2021 cohort, the one old enough to have been tested, 1 of 59 SBA 7(a) loans to this industry had been charged off, or 1.7 percent. Among the recreation industries, only bowling centers, marinas, event venues and museums did better, and all of them share the same characteristic: a lender holds land and a building it can sell.
Where the Numbers Come From #
Establishment, employment and payroll figures are Census County Business Patterns for 2023, the most recent year published, pulled directly from the Census API on October 5, 2026 for both 2022 and 2023 so the identical establishment count could be confirmed rather than assumed.
Receipts and firm counts are the 2022 Economic Census, the only federal source for industry revenue at this level, published every five years. Receipts per establishment divides the 2022 receipts by the 2022 establishment count so both halves of the ratio share a vintage; pairing 2022 revenue with a 2023 count would misstate it.
Average wage is CBP payroll divided by CBP employment. It is a calculated figure credited to Census, never to BLS, and in a seasonal industry measured in a March pay period it should be read as payroll per person on the books rather than what a full-time job pays.
Loan figures are the SBA's published 7(a) and 504 FOIA extracts, both dated June 30, 2026, aggregated by NAICS code and approval fiscal year. Aggregates only; no borrower-level record is used.
Related reading: how much a golf course makes and what buyers borrow to acquire one.
Multi-year trends, state-by-state course counts, concentration measurement and revenue projections sit in the golf industry report rather than on this page. See Report →.