Study Finding - Economic Value of National Parks is 10 Times the Cost

Thursday, March 8, 2012 11:57am PST (3 months ago)

In 2010 the federal government gave the National Park Service $2.7 billion and the return on investment was $31 billion and 258,400 jobs. According to a just-out study on the economic value of the NPS conducted by Michigan State University, most of the revenue was generated by lodging and food bought by visitors, who totalled a whopping 281 million -- the equivalent of 90 percent of the U.S. population.

Among the top earning and employing parks:

Yellowstone: $334..