Theme parks in Britain – Who’s going and how often?

Theme parks might conjure up images of summer holidays, rollercoasters, and days out with the family, but how often do people in Britain actually visit them? Data from YouGov Profiles helps paint a clearer picture of how popular theme parks really are, who’s still making time for them, and whether short breaks centered around these destinations are catching on.

On the face of it, theme parks aren’t a frequent fixture in most people’s calendars. Just 2% of adults say they visit at least once every 1-3 months. That rises slightly to 4% for those going two or three times a year, and to 11% for annual visitors. But the biggest group, 32%, say they go less than once a year, and 31% have never been at all.

So who is keeping the gates open?

Parents with younger kids are driving most of the traffic

Among parents of children under 18, visits look quite a bit more frequent. One in four (27%) say they take a trip to a theme park once a year, and another 15% go two or three times annually. That means over half of this group visits at least yearly, compared to 16% of the public overall.

They're also more likely to turn a day trip into a proper break. While only 5% of all adults say they typically take short leisure holidays (of under three days) to a theme park, that jumps to 12% among parents with younger children. For comparison, the figure is closer to 5% for parents whose children are now adults.

In other words, the data suggests theme parks remain a solid option for younger families but far less so for everyone else.

Recent visits? Few and far between

Recency data backs this up. Just 2% of adults say they visited a theme park in the last month, and only 4% in the last 2–3 months. A combined 13% have been in the last year. But more than half (51%) say it’s been longer than that, and another 31% have never visited at all.

So while theme parks may loom large in advertising and summer planning, most people aren’t showing up very often.

Methodology: YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data for Great Britain is nationally representative and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race.