Associations between socioeconomic status and hunting license sales among census tracts in Cook County, Illinois

Hunting license sales have declined in many U.S. states over recent decades, and efforts are underway to recruit new hunters. Research suggests socioeconomic status influences hunting participation and license sales. A limited number of studies, however, actually connect socioeconomic status and license sales on an aggregated community level or spatial context. This article examined relationships between socioeconomic factors and hunting license sales in Cook County, Illinois. A principal component analysis is used to create indices aggregating census tract socioeconomic indicators. Spatial and statistical analyses using both linear regression and multinomial logistic regression explored relationships between indices and percentage of license sales for each census tract. Spatial correlation and quantitative relationships were found between the indices and hunting license sales. Models developed through this study may provide current state hunter recruitment programs with an understanding of the interaction of socioeconomic factors and hunting license sales.