List of most-visited museums

This article lists museums with more than two million annual visitors reported in the most recent surveys of museum attendance. 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][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Criteria for inclusion

Major sources for this list are the Art Newspaper's annual exhibition and museum visitor figures, which includes only art museums; the TEA/AECOM Museum Index, which only includes museums in East Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States, and museum statistics compiled by national agencies in countries not comprehensively covered by the first two sources, such as China's National Cultural Heritage Administration and Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. The 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 list generally follows that guideline, so the Palace of Versailles, Peterhof Palace, and Forbidden City are not included, although these sites include some museum collections. Such palace museums are found in the List of most visited palaces and monuments. The list also includes one site, 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 no longer classifies as a museum as of 2020.

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[lower-alpha 2]
Louvre Paris9,600,0002019[12]
National Museum of China Beijing7,390,0002019[12]
Vatican Museums Vatican City6,882,9312019[12]
Metropolitan Museum of Art[lower-alpha 3] New York City6,479,5482019[12]
British Museum London6,239,9832019[12]
Tate Modern London6,098,3402019[12]
National Gallery London6,011,0072019[12]
Natural History Museum London5,424,0002019[13]
American Museum of Natural History New York City5,000,0002019[13]
State Hermitage Museum Saint Petersburg4,956,5292019[12]
Shanghai Science and Technology Museum Shanghai4,824,0002019[13]
Museo Reina Sofía Madrid4,425,6992019[12]
Guangdong Museum of Revolutionary History Guangzhou4,257,1002019[14]
National Museum of Natural History Washington, D.C.4,200,0002019[13]
Nanjing Museum Nanjing4,169,0002019[13]
Zhejiang Museum Hangzhou4,150,0002019[13]
National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C.4,074,4032019[12]
Victoria and Albert Museum London3,932,9382019[15]
China Science and Technology Museum Beijing3,891,0002019[13]
Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution Beijing3,870,0002019[14]
National Palace Museum[lower-alpha 4] Taipei3,832,3732019[15]
Shenzhen Museum Shenzhen3,826,0002019[14]
Musée d'Orsay Paris3,651,6162019[15]
Museo del Prado Madrid3,497,3452019[15]
Mevlana Museum Konya3,464,1552019[11]
Xi'an Museum Xi'an3,420,0002019[13]
National Museum of Korea Seoul3,354,1612019[15]
Centre Pompidou Paris3,273,8672019[15]
London Science Museum London3,254,0002019[13]
National Air and Space Museum Washington, D.C.3,200,0002019[13]
Tianjin Natural History Museum Tianjin3,150,0002019[13]
Hunan Museum Changsha3,140,0002019[13]
Moscow Kremlin Museums Moscow3,101,5502019[15]
National Museum of Anthropology Mexico City3,086,5552019[16]
National Taiwan Science Education Center Taipei3,000,0002019[13]
Royal Museums Greenwich London2,906,0002019[17]
Shaanxi History Museum Xi'an2,900,0002019[13]
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Tokyo2,873,8062019[15]
Somerset House London2,841,7722019[15]
Tretyakov Gallery Moscow2,835,8362019[15]
National Museum of History Mexico City2,811,6462019[16]
National Museum of American History Washington, D.C.2,800,0002019[13]
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam2,700,0002019[15]
Tokyo National Museum Tokyo2,684,7542019[15]
National Museum of Natural Science Taichung2,650,0002019[13]
Chongqing Museum of Natural History Chongqing2,624,7002019[14]
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro2,606,9992019[15]
Shanghai Natural History Museum Shanghai2,549,0002019[13]
National Museum of Nature and Science Tokyo2,460,0002019[13]
Zhejiang Museum of Natural History Hangzhou2,443,0002019[13]
NGV International Melbourne2,432,8832019[15]
Hubei Provincial Museum Wuhan2,400,0002019[13]
Russian Museum Saint Petersburg2,394,4002019[15]
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie Paris2,370,0002019[13]
Galleria degli Uffizi Florence2,361,7322019[15]
Inner Mongolia Museum Hohhot2,361,0002019[14]
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Oświęcim2,320,0002019[18]
Three Gorges Museum Chongqing2,301,9002019[14]
National Folk Museum of Korea Seoul2,286,2762019[15]
Liaoning Provincial Museum Shenyang2,280,0002019[14]
Chengdu Museum Chengdu2,259,0002019[14]
Guangdong Museum Guangzhou2,234,8002019[14]
Wenzhou Museum Wenzhou2,229,9002019[14]
National Museum of Scotland Edinburgh2,210,0242019[15]
California Science Center Los Angeles2,200,0002019[13]
Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam2,100,0002019[15]
Kraków Saltworks Museum Wieliczka 2,078,544 2019[19]
Shanghai Museum Shanghai2,070,2702019[15]
Suzhou Museum Suzhou2,030,0002019[14]
National Museum of African American History and Culture Washington, D.C.2,000,0002019[13]

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[8]); the Palace of Versailles (8,132,518 visitors in 2018);[9] 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;[10] the Museum of King John III's Palace at Wilanów (3,151,385 visitors in 2018);[9] and Istanbul's Topkapı Palace (2,364,946 visitors in 2019).[11]
  2. Some museums in Italy and Asia were closed because of the Coronavirus in Spring 2020 when the Art Newspaper was conducting its survey. In those cases, the list shows the reported 2018 attendance figures instead of the 2019 figures. The American Museum of Natural History in New York was closed for renovation during much of 2019. The list shows the 2018 attendance.
  3. Includes visitors at the main Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Met Cloisters, but not the visitors recorded at the Met Breuer.[12]
  4. 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. "Museum Definition - ICOM". icom.museum. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  3. "MUSEUM | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary". dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  4. "museum | Definition of museum in English by Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries | English. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  5. "Museum definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  6. "museum | Definition, History, Types, & Operation". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  7. "museum (noun) American English definition and synonyms | Macmillan Dictionary". www.macmillandictionary.com. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  8. "Beijing's Forbidden City ranks most visited museum in the world". China Daily. 5 January 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  9. "5 most visited museums". European Group on Museum Statistics. 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  10. "Музеи. Статистическая информация". Ministry of Culture of Russia. 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  11. "Top 10: Turkey's most-visited museums in 2019". Yeni Şafak. 12 February 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  12. "Art's Most Popular: here are 2019's most visited shows and museums". The Art Newspaper. 31 March 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  13. "TEA/AECOM 2019 Theme Index and Museum Index Report" (PDF). 2020.
  14. "2019年度全国博物馆名录" (PDF) (in Chinese). National Cultural Heritage Administration. 13 May 2020.
  15. "Top 100 Art museum attendance". The Art Newspaper (322). April 2020. p. 15.
  16. "Estadística de Visitantes" (in Spanish). INAH. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  17. "Latest Visitor Figures". Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  18. "2,32 miliona odwiedzających Miejsce Pamięci Auschwitz w 2019 r." Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (in Polish). 7 January 2020.
  19. GUS. "Kultura w 2019 roku". stat.gov.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 23 January 2021.

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