White Sands by the year.
Each point is the park's total recreation visits for that calendar year, drawn from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025 (Statistic = TRV, summed from monthly to annual). The full 1979-2025 history is shown: 47 years. The line traces the long-run shape; the orange dot marks the peak year and the teal dot marks the lowest. The table below carries every year's exact count and its year-over-year change.
| Year | Recreation visits | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 580,814 | |
| 1980 | 511,476 | -11.9% |
| 1981 | 556,494 | +8.8% |
| 1982 | 543,581 | -2.3% |
| 1983 | 492,902 | -9.3% |
| 1984 | 542,930 | +10.1% |
| 1985 | 486,754 | -10.3% |
| 1986 | 666,879 | +37.0% |
| 1987 | 567,613 | -14.9% |
| 1988 | 556,185 | -2.0% |
| 1989 | 568,530 | +2.2% |
| 1990 | 582,487 | +2.5% |
| 1991 | 588,543 | +1.0% |
| 1992 | 590,371 | +0.3% |
| 1993 | 611,252 | +3.5% |
| 1994 | 583,061 | -4.6% |
| 1995 | 604,796 | +3.7% |
| 1996 | 616,699 | +2.0% |
| 1997 | 629,507 | +2.1% |
| 1998 | 592,957 | -5.8% |
| 1999 | 553,948 | -6.6% |
| 2000 | 515,229 | -7.0% |
| 2001 | 518,958 | +0.7% |
| 2002 | 498,964 | -3.9% |
| 2003 | 492,008 | -1.4% |
| 2004 | 448,185 | -8.9% |
| 2005 | 450,447 | +0.5% |
| 2006 | 440,927 | -2.1% |
| 2007 | 437,042 | -0.9% |
| 2008 | 438,511 | +0.3% |
| 2009 | 471,167 | +7.4% |
| 2010 | 470,921 | -0.1% |
| 2011 | 428,924 | -8.9% |
| 2012 | 447,385 | +4.3% |
| 2013 | 490,544 | +9.6% |
| 2014 | 503,660 | +2.7% |
| 2015 | 497,506 | -1.2% |
| 2016 | 555,793 | +11.7% |
| 2017 | 612,468 | +10.2% |
| 2018 | 603,008 | -1.5% |
| 2019 | 608,785 | +1.0% |
| 2020 | 415,383 | -31.8% |
| 2021 | 782,469 | +88.4% |
| 2022 | 705,127 | -9.9% |
| 2023 | 729,096 | +3.4% |
| 2024 | 702,236 | -3.7% |
| 2025 | 659,742 | -6.1% |
What the trend says
The latest decline follows another lower year. White Sands recorded 729,096 visits in 2023, 702,236 in 2024 and 659,742 in 2025. The latest total is 15.7% below the 2021 series high.
The longer comparison is different. 2025's total is 32.6% higher than 2015's 497,506. A recent annual decline does not mean visits are lower than every earlier period.
The record includes the national-monument years. NPS dates the national park designation to December 20, 2019. This WHSA series begins in 1979; the name change is not a reason to discard earlier counts, or evidence that designation caused later changes.
Common questions
How many visits did White Sands record in 2025?
659,742 recreation visits, down 6.1% from 702,236 in 2024. Repeat visits are not combined into a count of distinct people.
What was White Sands' busiest year?
2021 has the highest total in this 1979–2025 series: 782,469 recreation visits. This is a record within the displayed dataset, not a claim about earlier years.
Did becoming a national park cause visitation to rise?
The annual totals alone cannot establish a causal effect from the 2019 designation. The series includes both national-monument and national-park years under WHSA. It shows changes without assigning a cause.
How the annual totals are calculated
Each year sums twelve monthly TRV (recreation visit) values for reporting unit WHSA in the NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025. The table covers 1979–2025; recreation visits are not unique people or visitor spending.
Counts establish the size and direction of changes, not their causes. Historical reporting practices may differ. The series maximum makes no claim about years before 1979. We are independent of the National Park Service.
Independent site. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service. Data comes from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; editorial analysis is ours. The NPS Arrowhead and other NPS marks are not used.