List of most-visited museums

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See also: List of most-visited art museums

This article lists the most-visited museums which reported attendance figures for 2021, followed by other museums with large numbers of annual visitors in 2020 and 2019 but no reported 2021 figures. A museum is defined as a building or institution dedicated to the acquisition, care, research, and exhibition of numerous objects that represent the legacy of humankind and its environment.[1]

Effects of COVID-19 on attendance[edit]

Total attendance in the top one hundred art museums rebounded in 2021 to 71 million visitors, up from 54 million in 2020, but far below the 230 million visitors at the top hundred art museums in 2019. Many museums, particularly in Asia, have not yet reported attendance figures for 2021.[2]

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museums listed were closed in 2020 for long periods of time. The Louvre, the top museum on the list, was closed for 150 days in 2020, and Louvre attendance for 2020 dropped by 72 percent from 2019. Attendance at the top one hundred art museums dropped by 77 percent in 2020.[3] Natural history and science museums had a comparable drop in attendance as a result of the COVID-19 virus, which caused long closures and a global drop in tourism. For example, attendance at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum fell by 72 percent in 2020; attendance at the Natural History Museum in London fell by 77 percent, and attendance at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington fell by 86.4 percent in 2020.[4]

Attendance at the top twenty museums of all categories in 2020 decreased by 78 percent across all regions.[5] in Europe, tourism was largely stopped, and museums were closed for an average of 112 extra days in 2020 due to the virus. Attendance at the top twenty museums in North America, where many museums were forced to close for two thirds of the year, fell by 81 percent in 2020, In the Asia-Pacific region, many museums were less dependent upon foreign visitors, and the museums generally closed for shorter periods, an average of 30 days. Still, in the Asia-Pacific region, attendance in 2020 dropped by 72.4 percent from 2019.[5]

Criteria for inclusion[edit]

This list includes art museums, history museums, natural history museums, and science museums, but does not include archaeological sites, historical monuments, or many palace museums.[a] This article generally follows that guideline, so the Palace of Versailles, Peterhof Palace, and Forbidden City are not included, even though these sites include some museum collections. Such palace museums are found in the List of most visited palaces and monuments.

The list also includes the Mevlana Museum, a mausoleum and religious shrine which is classified by the Turkish government as a museum. It does not include Hagia Sophia, which the Turkish government reclassified as a mosque in 2020.

Due to differences in reporting across regions, there is some variation in the time periods for which figures are reported. Unless otherwise noted, figures for North America and continental Europe are calendar year figures, while most figures for Britain and Asia-Pacific are fiscal year figures, from April through March.

Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
National Museum of China, Beijing, China
Russian Museum, St.Petersburg, Russia
Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, United States
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Vatican Museum, Vatican City

List[edit]

Name Country flag, city Visitors per year Year reported
Louvre France Paris 2,825,000 2021[10]
National Museum of China China Beijing 2,377,600 2021[11]
Russian Museum Russia Saint Petersburg 2,260,231 2021[12]
Multimedia Art Museum Russia Moscow 2,242,405 2021[13]
Metropolitan Museum of Art United States New York City 1,958,000 2021[14]
Galleria degli Uffizi Italy Florence 1,721,637 2021[15]
National Gallery of Art United States Washington, D.C. 1,704,606 2021[16]
State Hermitage Museum Russia Saint Petersburg 1,649,443 2021[17]
Museo Reina Sofía Spain Madrid 1,643,000 2021[18]
Vatican Museums Vatican City Vatican City 1,612,530 2021[19]
Tretyakov Gallery Russia Moscow 1,580,819 2021[20]
Centre Pompidou France Paris 1,501,040 2021[21]
Natural History Museum United Kingdom London 1,571,413 2021[22]
Tate Modern United Kingdom London 1,156,037 2021[23]
Museo del Prado Spain Madrid 1,126,875 2021[24]
Musée d'Orsay France Paris 1,044,365 2021[25]
National Museum of Natural History United States Washington, D.C. 982,000 2021[26]
National Air and Space Museum United States Washington, D.C. 972,235 2021[27]
London Science Museum United Kingdom London 955,573 2021[28]
Shanghai Museum China Shanghai 880,457 2021[29]
Victoria and Albert Museum United Kingdom London 857,742 2021[30]
National Gallery United Kingdom London 708,924 2021[31]
Royal Museums Greenwich United Kingdom London 686,375 2021[32]
National Museum of Scotland United Kingdom Edinburgh 660,741 2021[33]
Rijksmuseum Netherlands Amsterdam 625,000 2021[34]
National Museum of Anthropology Mexico Mexico City 477,147 2021[35]
National Palace Museum[b] Taiwan Taipei 416,436 2021[36]
National Museum of African-American History and Culture United States Washington, D.C. 392,960 2021[37]
Van Gogh Museum Netherlands Amsterdam 366,359 2021[38]
National Museum of History Mexico Mexico City 331,985 2021[35]
Nanjing Museum China Nanjing 1,515,000 2020[39]
Shanghai Science and Technology Museum China Shanghai 1,351,000 2020[40]
Hunan Museum China Changsha 1,130,000 2020[41]
Zhejiang Museum China Hangzhou 1,108,000 2020[42]
National Museum of Natural Science Taiwan Taichung 2,263,000 2020[43]
National Taiwan Science Education Center Taiwan Taipei 1,082,000 2020[44]
Shanghai Natural History Museum China Shanghai 1,040,000 2020[42]
Shaanxi History Museum China Xi'an 1,000,000 2020[44]
China Science and Technology Museum China Beijing 690,000 2020[40]
Tianjin Natural History Museum China Tianjin 550,000 2020[41]
National Museum of Nature and Science Japan Tokyo 580,000 2020[45]
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Japan Tokyo 510,000 2020[46]
Tokyo National Museum Japan Tokyo 725,000 2020[46]
Hubei Provincial Museum China Wuhan 446,000 2020[47]
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie France Paris 642,416 2020[48]
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Brazil Rio de Janeiro 790,357 2020[49]
National Museum of Korea South Korea Seoul 774,000 2020[39]
National Archeological Museum of Naples Italy Naples 670,594 2019[39]
California Science Center United States Los Angeles 271,000 2020[39]
Chongqing Museum of Natural History China Chongqing 2,624,700 2019[51]
Shenzhen Museum China Shenzhen 3,826,000 2019[51]
Guangdong Museum of Revolutionary History China Guangzhou 4,257,100 2019[51]
Mevlana Museum Turkey Konya 3,464,155 2019[9]
Xi'an Museum China Xi'an 3,420,000 2019[52]
Inner Mongolia Museum China Hohhot 2,361,000 2019[51]
Three Gorges Museum China Chongqing 2,301,900 2019[51]
National Folk Museum of Korea South Korea Seoul 2,286,276 2019[50]
Liaoning Provincial Museum China Shenyang 2,280,000 2019[51]
Chengdu Museum China Chengdu 2,259,000 2019[51]
Guangdong Museum China Guangzhou 2,234,800 2019[51]
Wenzhou Museum China Wenzhou 2,229,900 2019[51]
Suzhou Museum China Suzhou 2,030,000 2019[51]
Jakarta History Museum Indonesia Jakarta 741,487 2019[53]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Some well-attended palace museums are not included in either the Art Newspaper or TEA/AECOM lists, although they are sometimes classified as museums by their respective national cultural agencies. These include Beijing's Forbidden City (which, with more than 19 million visitors in 2019, was ranked as the most-visited museum by the China Daily News Agency[6]); the Palace of Versailles (8,132,518 visitors in 2018);[7] Peterhof Palace (5,714,700 visitors in 2018), which is formally classified either as a "Дворцо́во-па́рковый анса́мбль, or Palace-Park Ensemble" or as a "Museum-Park Ensemble" by the Russian Ministry of Culture;[8] the Museum of King John III's Palace at Wilanów (3,151,385 visitors in 2018);[7] and Istanbul's Topkapı Palace (2,364,946 visitors in 2019).[9]
  2. ^ Includes only the visitors recorded at the main museum in Taipei, and not visitors recorded at the Southern Branch.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Definition of MUSEUM". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  2. ^ The Art Newspaper, March 28, 2022
  3. ^ The Art Newspaper, March 30, 2021
  4. ^ https://aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/reports/AECOM-Theme-Index-2020.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  5. ^ a b Theme Index for year 2020, published September 2021
  6. ^ "Beijing's Forbidden City ranks most visited museum in the world". China Daily. 5 January 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  7. ^ a b "5 most visited museums". European Group on Museum Statistics. 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  8. ^ "Музеи. Статистическая информация". Ministry of Culture of Russia. 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Top 10: Turkey's most-visited museums in 2019". Yeni Şafak. 12 February 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  10. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  11. ^ "National Museum Annual Report Information System". NCHA.
  12. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  13. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  14. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  15. ^ "Tutti i numeri del 2021 delle Gallerie degli Uffizi | le Gallerie degli Uffizi".
  16. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  17. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  18. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  19. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  20. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  21. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  22. ^ Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), (retrieved 3 April 2022)
  23. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  24. ^ "Datos de visitas - Museo Nacional del Prado".
  25. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  26. ^ Smithsonian Newsroom, visitor statistics, retrieved April 5, 2022
  27. ^ Smithsonian Newsroom, visitor statistics, retrieved April 4, 2022. (Includes attendance at Udvar-Hazy Center)
  28. ^ Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), (retrieved 3 April 2022)
  29. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  30. ^ Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), (retrieved 3 April 2022)
  31. ^ "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  32. ^ Association of Leading Visitor Attractions in UK, (retrieved April 4, 2022)
  33. ^ Association of Leading Visitor Attractions in UK, (retrieved April 4, 2022)
  34. ^ The Art Newspaper, March 28, 2022
  35. ^ a b "Estadística de Visitantes" (in Spanish). INAH. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  36. ^ "Art Newspaper" list of most-visited art museums in 2021, published March 28, 2022
  37. ^ "Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  38. ^ The Art Newspaper, March 28, 2022
  39. ^ a b c d Annual Report 2019, MANN
  40. ^ a b Tea-AECOM Museum Index, "Top 20 Museums Worldwide", published September 2021
  41. ^ a b TEA-AECOM Musedum Index, published September 2021
  42. ^ a b Tea-AECOM Museum Index,published September 2021
  43. ^ TEA-AECOM Museum Index for 2020, published September 2021
  44. ^ a b TEA-AECOM Museum Index published September 2021
  45. ^ TEA-AECOM survey, Sept, 2021
  46. ^ a b TEA-AECOM Museum index, published September 2021
  47. ^ TEA-AECOM Survey published September 2021
  48. ^ Statista, October 9, 2021
  49. ^ The Art Newspaper, March 30, 2021
  50. ^ a b "Top 100 Art museum attendance". The Art Newspaper. No. 322. April 2020. p. 15.
  51. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "2019年度全国博物馆名录" (PDF) (in Chinese). National Cultural Heritage Administration. 13 May 2020.
  52. ^ TEA-AECOM Museum Index for 2019
  53. ^ "Data Jumlah Pengunjung Museum Berdasarkan Jenis Museum Tahun 2019". jakarta.go.id (in Indonesian). 6 February 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2022.

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