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Golf anyone? A look at golf courses and country clubs by state

August 27, 2018

Whether you belong to a country club or go to a public golf course, playing golf can be a year-round hobby or an annual outing with friends. States where golf courses and country clubs are prevalent are ideal homes for avid golfers. Nationwide, in December 2017, the golf courses and country clubs industry employed 307,000 in 11,100 establishments. Florida had the highest location quotient, at 2.7 times the national average. Location quotients are the ratio of an industry’s share of statewide employment to its national share. A location quotient greater than 1 means the industry share of statewide employment is higher than the national share.
Golf courses and country clubs location quotients by state, December 2017
State Location quotient Establishments Employment

U.S. Total

 1.00 11,088 306,782

Florida

 2.66 884 48,670

Hawaii

 2.50 57 3,491

South Carolina

 2.10 256 9,094

Arizona

 1.58 168 9,417

Nevada

 1.39 83 3,959

North Carolina

 1.35 402 12,496

Alabama

 1.14 150 4,670

Pennsylvania

 1.13 551 13,975

Georgia

 1.10 279 10,279

Montana

 1.09 77 1,053

Delaware

 1.08 28 1,006

New Hampshire

 1.07 83 1,490

Connecticut

 1.03 137 3,644

Kansas

 0.99 121 2,901

Nebraska

 0.97 141 1,997

Virginia

 0.96 215 7,849

California

 0.95 632 34,656

Arkansas

 0.94 160 2,404

Massachusetts

 0.91 316 6,858

Ohio

 0.90 540 10,206

New Jersey

 0.90 223 7,796

Texas

 0.89 539 22,745

Wisconsin

 0.87 382 5,240

South Dakota

 0.85 77 754

Oklahoma

 0.84 101 2,824

Maryland

 0.82 103 4,607

Colorado

 0.81 138 4,529

Iowa

 0.81 300 2,630

Michigan

 0.78 582 7,114

Missouri

 0.78 231 4,635

Idaho

 0.76 79 1,134

Illinois

 0.76 409 9,550

Oregon

 0.72 134 2,869

Mississippi

 0.72 107 1,719

Wyoming

 0.69 33 390

Minnesota

 0.67 336 4,021

Tennessee

 0.67 170 4,233

Washington

 0.66 215 4,611

Indiana

 0.65 291 4,155

New Mexico

 0.62 37 1,066

Maine

 0.61 117 788

Louisiana

 0.58 95 2,326

Utah

 0.55 48 1,689

Kentucky

 0.55 164 2,216

New York

 0.53 648 10,560

West Virginia

 0.51 68 740

Vermont

 0.44 44 290

North Dakota

 0.32 66 281

Rhode Island

 (2) 51 (1)

Alaska

 (2) 16 (1)

District of Columbia

 (2) 4 (1)
Footnotes:

(1) Data do not meet BLS or State agency disclosure standards

(2) One or more components of this calculation do not exist or do not meet BLS or State agency disclosure standards.

Hawaii (2.50), South Carolina (2.10), and Arizona (1.58), also had higher concentrations of employment in golf courses and country clubs in December 2017. North Dakota (0.32), Vermont (0.44), and West Virginia (0.51), had the lowest concentration of employees in golf courses and country clubs among states. The industry employed less than 300 in both Vermont and North Dakota.

These data are from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program. You can get more industry employment data for the nation, states, counties, and metropolitan areas through the QCEW data viewer tool.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Golf anyone? A look at golf courses and country clubs by state at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/golf-anyone-a-look-at-golf-courses-and-country-clubs-by-state.htm (visited October 31, 2024).

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