List of most-visited museums

This article lists the most visited museums reported in 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]

See also: List of most-visited art museums

Effects of COVID-19 on attendance

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museums listed were closed during the year for long periods of time. For example, 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.[2] 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.[3]

Attendance at the top twenty museums of all categories in 2020 decreased by 78 percent across all regions.[4] 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 dropped by 72.4 percent from 2019.[4]

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.[5]

Criteria for inclusion

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.[lower-alpha 1] 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 stopped classifying as a museum 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
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, United States
Vatican Museums, Vatican City
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom
National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

List
NameCountry flag, cityVisitors per yearYear reported
Louvre Paris2,825,0002021[10]
Russian Museum Saint Petersburg2,260,2312021[11]
Multimedia Art Museum Moscow2,242,4052021[12]
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City1,958,0002021[13]
National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C.1,704,6062021[14]
State Hermitage Museum Saint Petersburg1,649,4432021[15]
Museo Reina Sofía Madrid1,643,0002021[16]
Vatican Museums Vatican City1,612,5302021[17]
Tretyakov Gallery Moscow1,580,8192021[18]
Centre Pompidou Paris1,501,0402021[19]
Museo del Prado Madrid1,175,2962021[20]
Tate Modern London1,156,0372021[21]
Natural History Museum London1,571,4132021[22]
Musée d'Orsay Paris1,044,3652021[23]
National Museum of Natural History Washington, D.C.982,0002021[24]
National Air and Space Museum Washington, D.C.972,2352021[25]
Galleria degli Uffizi Florence969,6952021[26]
London Science Museum London955,5732021[27]
Shanghai Museum Shanghai880,4572021[28]
Victoria and Albert Museum London857,7422021[29]
National Gallery London708,9242021[30]
Royal Museums Greenwich London686,3752021[31]
National Museum of Scotland Edinburgh660,7412021[32]
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam625,0002021[33]
National Museum of Anthropology Mexico City477,1472021[34]
National Palace Museum[lower-alpha 2] Taipei416,4362021[35]
National Museum of African-American History and Culture Washington, D.C.392,9602021[36]
Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam366,3592021[37]
National Museum of History Mexico City331,9852021[34]
National Museum of China Beijing1,600,0002020[38]
Nanjing Museum Nanjing1,515,0002020[39]
Shanghai Science and Technology Museum Shanghai1,351,0002020[38]
Hunan Museum Changsha1,130,0002020[40]
Zhejiang Museum Hangzhou1,108,0002020[41]
National Museum of Natural Science Taichung2,263,0002020[42]
National Taiwan Science Education Center Taipei1,082,0002020[43]
Shanghai Natural History Museum Shanghai1,040,0002020[41]
Shaanxi History Museum Xi'an1,000,0002020[43]
China Science and Technology Museum Beijing690,0002020[38]
Tianjin Natural History Museum Tianjin550,0002020[40]
National Museum of Nature and Science Tokyo580,0002020[44]
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Tokyo510,0002020[45]
Tokyo National Museum Tokyo725,0002020[45]
Hubei Provincial Museum Wuhan446,0002020[46]
California Science Center Los Angeles271,0002020[39]
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie Paris642,4162020[47]
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro790,3572020[48]
National Museum of Korea Seoul774,0002020[39]
Chongqing Museum of Natural History Chongqing2,624,7002019[50]
Shenzhen Museum Shenzhen3,826,0002019[50]
Guangdong Museum of Revolutionary History Guangzhou4,257,1002019[50]
Mevlana Museum Konya3,464,1552019[9]
Xi'an Museum Xi'an3,420,0002019[51]
Inner Mongolia Museum Hohhot2,361,0002019[50]
Three Gorges Museum Chongqing2,301,9002019[50]
National Folk Museum of Korea Seoul2,286,2762019[49]
Liaoning Provincial Museum Shenyang2,280,0002019[50]
Chengdu Museum Chengdu2,259,0002019[50]
Guangdong Museum Guangzhou2,234,8002019[50]
Wenzhou Museum Wenzhou2,229,9002019[50]
Suzhou Museum Suzhou2,030,0002019[50]
Jakarta History Museum Jakarta741,4872019[52]

See also

Notes
  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
  1. "Definition of MUSEUM". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  2. The Art Newspaper, March 30, 2021
  3. https://aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/reports/AECOM-Theme-Index-2020.pdf
  4. Theme Index for year 2020, published September 2021
  5. The Art Newspaper, March 28, 2022
  6. "Beijing's Forbidden City ranks most visited museum in the world". China Daily. 5 January 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  7. "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. "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. "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  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. "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  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. Smithsonian Newsroom, visitor statistics, retrieved April 5, 2022
  25. Smithsonian Newsroom, visitor statistics, retrieved April 4, 2022<. (Includes attendance at Udvar-Hazy Center)
  26. The Art Newspaper, retrieved 4 April 2022
  27. Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), (retrieved 3 April 2022)
  28. "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  29. Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), (retrieved 3 April 2022)
  30. "The Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  31. {Association of Leading Visitor Attractions |accessdate=April 4, 2022}}
  32. Association of Leading Visitor Attractions in UK, (retrieved April 4, 2022)
  33. The Art Newspaper, March 28, 2022
  34. "Estadística de Visitantes" (in Spanish). INAH. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  35. "Art Newspaper" list of most-visited art museums in 2021, published March 28, 2022
  36. "Art Newspaper", published March 28, 2022
  37. The Art Newspaper, March 28, 2022
  38. Tea-AECOM Museum Index, "Top 20 Museums Worldwide", published September 2021
  39. TEA-AECOM Museum Index, published September 2021
  40. TEA-AECOM Musedum Index, published September 2021
  41. Tea-AECOM Museum Index,published September 2021
  42. TEA-AECOM Museum Index for 2020, published September 2021
  43. TEA-AECOM Museum Index published September 2021
  44. TEA-AECOM survey, Sept, 2021
  45. TEA-AECOM Museum index, published September 2021
  46. TEA-AECOM Survey published September 2021
  47. Statista, October 9, 2021
  48. The Art Newspaper, March 30, 2021
  49. "Top 100 Art museum attendance". The Art Newspaper. No. 322. April 2020. p. 15.
  50. "2019年度全国博物馆名录" (PDF) (in Chinese). National Cultural Heritage Administration. 13 May 2020.
  51. TEA-AECOM Museum Index for 2019
  52. "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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