Which state has the most zoos and botanical gardens? 🦁
1Guess
Which states have the most zoo and botanical-garden businesses — places that keep and show living animals or living plants? Tap them most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→4 in order
Florida! Alligators, dolphins, the works 🐾
2Answer
The real order is…
California wins by a nose: only about 1.03× as many as Florida, a real photo finish — and California has about 1.7× as many people as Florida. Then look at Hawaii: not among the 35 most populous states, yet ahead of Arizona, Washington and Minnesota. The clue is in the label — this line is not only zoos. The Census puts every business that shows living plants or animals in one group: aquariums, aviaries, arboreta and botanical gardens too. One honest catch: it counts businesses with paid staff, so zoos and gardens run by a city or a state are mostly not in it.
📚 BackgroundCalifornia takes it — but only by a nose, with Florida a handful of businesses behind even though California has about 1.7× as many people. The bigger surprise is Hawaii, which is not among the 35 most populous states and still lands ahead of Arizona, Washington and Minnesota. The reason is hiding in the label: this group is not just zoos. The Census puts every business that shows living plants or animals in one line — aquariums, aviaries, arboreta and botanical gardens too — and warm, wet Hawaii is full of gardens. One honest catch: businesses with paid staff are counted, so zoos and gardens run by a city or state government are mostly outside this table.(U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns)
Zoo and botanical-garden businesses (by state, 2022)
California#189 zoos & gardens
Highest: California (89 zoos & gardens); lowest shown here: New Hampshire (4 zoos & gardens).
Note: counts business locations with paid staff that preserve and exhibit living plant and animal displays — zoos, aquariums, wild animal parks, aviaries, botanical gardens and arboreta — each counted once, whatever its size. Zoos and gardens run by federal, state or local government are mostly not in this table. 2022, U.S. Census Bureau. Only the 42 states where the Census published a count for this industry are shown — the rest have no published count for it.
Census County Business Patterns 2022: zoos and botanical gardens (NAICS 712130), establishments by state (2026-08-06) — Official published establishment counts (a business location with paid employees counts once, whatever its size; the committed raw file holds the API values verbatim with the NAICS code). NAICS 712130 covers establishments that preserve and exhibit live plant and animal displays — zoos, aquariums, wild animal parks, aviaries and botanical gardens/arboreta together. CBP does not cover most government employers, so city- or state-run zoos and gardens are largely outside this count. Only the states the Census publishes for this industry appear.
↳ On the Census CBP data (data.census.gov or api.census.gov/data/2022/cbp), filter NAICS 712130 (Zoos and Botanical Gardens) and read ESTAB (number of establishments) for 2022 by state.