A new study confirms what Coloradans and people everywhere witnessed in 2020: a surge in the outdoors.

The Boulder-based Outdoor Industry Association pointed to the pandemic as the reason for an estimated 160.7 million Americans partaking in outdoor recreation last year. That was the highest number on record in the annual report dating to 2007 and also the largest one-year jump the trade group has ever recorded — up 7.1 million people from 2019.

The study, based on the latest Census data, suggests close to half the U.S. population played outside in 2020.

“These one-year gains, however, did not fundamentally alter the long-term challenges faced by the outdoor industry,” according to the report’s executive summary.

The industry continues to monitor what it calls “troubling trends” regarding race and gender.

The study determined 72% of people enjoying nature were white. While making up 18% of the U.S. population, Hispanic people accounted for 11% of the country’s outdoor participants  — defined as someone who walked, hiked, biked, fished or engaged in some other activity at least once on the year. Researchers found that to be 9% for Black people, who account for 13% of the population. The study has has found Asian-American outdoor-going to be dropping for three years.

Making up about 51% of the country’s population, women reportedly account for 46% of outdoor recreation participation.

“This gender gap has not changed in eight years, suggesting that industry efforts to expand the participation base have been ineffective or stagnated,” according to the study.

The report also found a continuing decline in the amount of time spent outside.

Despite the larger number of participants, researchers estimated a total 11.4 billion outings in 2020, below the total 12.4 billion projected in 2012 . In 2015, the study found an average number of 82 outings among people on the year. The estimate was 71 for 2020.

The study indicated about a quarter of “new participants” would not continue their outdoor activities in the new year — “a number that may grow sharply as consumers return to pre-pandemic habits,” the Outdoor Industry Association noted.

Data was extrapolated from a survey of 18,000 people age 6 and older. “A weighting technique was used to balance the data to reflect the total U.S. population” according to the report, which adds a confidence level of plus or minus 0.32 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.