Leisure Facilities Data Providers: Site Inventories, Live Sessions and Demand Economics · Head-to-head
BEA Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account (ORSA) — National & State vs data.gov.uk — UK National Data Library
Which leisure facilities data providers: site inventories, live sessions and demand economics data fits your job: BEA Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account, or data.gov.uk — UK National Data Library. API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
BEA Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account (ORSA)
data.gov.uk — UK National Data Library
Coverage, side by side
| BEA Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account | data.gov.uk — UK National Data Library | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic | United States national level plus all 50 states and the District of Columbia | United Kingdom — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, published by central and local government bodies |
| Temporal | 2012–2024 annual series in the current release; each release adds one data year | Varies entirely by dataset; the catalogue itself is continuously updated and sorted by most recent |
What each contains
Pick by fit, not by loyalty.
| BEA Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account | data.gov.uk — UK National Data Library | |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) | UK government portal, rebranded as the National Data Library |
| Subject lens | The outdoor recreation economy counted: value added, gross output, compensation and employment by activity and by industry | — |
| Field dictionary | 8 documented fields, verified during research | 6 documented fields (the Directory's catalogue record), verified during research |
| Geographic coverage | United States national level plus all 50 states and the District of Columbia | United Kingdom — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, published by central and local government bodies |
| Temporal coverage | 2012–2024 annual series in the current release; each release adds one data year | Varies entirely by dataset; the catalogue itself is continuously updated and sorted by most recent |
| Detail level | National and state totals split by outdoor recreation activity and by NAICS industry | Dataset-level records; individual datasets typically land at local-authority or postcode/coordinate granularity |
| Scale | Roughly 5 national tables, 1 state file and a 51-jurisdiction summary bundle, each spanning 13 data years | 4,540 results in the current Directory index across 227 pages |
| Structure | One statistical account with fixed tables and measures | A metadata catalogue linking out to thousands of separately published datasets |
| Best for | Sizing and benchmarking the US outdoor recreation economy by activity, industry and state | Locating UK council-level facility, park and open-space registers among thousands of public datasets |
The verdict
Verdict: sample both, pick by fit — they barely overlap in what they measure, so the question decides, not the leaderboard.
Reach for BEA Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account (ORSA) when the question needs an amount: sizing the US outdoor economy, benchmarking one state's share against Hawaii's 6.1 percent, building a demand model for RVs or bicycles off activity-level value added, or anchoring an investor deck in official GDP-share numbers.
Reach for data.gov.uk — UK National Data Library when the question needs a source: locating council open-space registers for a site-selection study, inventorying UK local-authority leisure publications, or checking what a given publisher has released under which topic and format.
Teams whose questions span both — say, comparing how two countries account for outdoor life — usually end up sampling both, because neither substitutes for the other even at home.
Sample both, pick by fit. See BEA Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account · See data.gov.uk — UK National Data Library
Or take both in one feed
They stack as numerator plus directory. Let ORSA fix the size of the prize: $696.7 billion of US value added, activity by activity, state by state. Then let the catalogue populate the ground truth beneath any UK-side analysis — the registers, boundaries and facility lists its publishers maintain. One supplies the economic weights; the other finds the geographic fabric.
Join discipline, not luck: there is no shared key between a federal satellite account and a UK metadata catalogue, so alignment happens at your analytical layer — matching activity categories to whatever facility or participation taxonomies the UK entries use, and keeping the two geographies explicitly separate rather than forcing one map.
Worked example: rank US states by outdoor recreation share of GDP on the ORSA side, then use the Directory to source equivalent greenspace registers for a UK comparator region. One desk, two dictionaries, no forced choice. Or take both in one feed — delivered together, on the cadence you set.
API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
Fair questions
Is the BEA Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account better than data.gov.uk?
Better at different jobs. ORSA scores 9 out of 10 for measuring the US outdoor recreation economy — $696.7 billion of 2024 value added, state shares from Hawaii's 6.1 percent down to DC's 1.0 percent, 2012–2024 in consistent tables. data.gov.uk scores 8 out of 10 as a discovery layer over 4,540 indexed UK public datasets down to council open-space registers. Structure favors the account; breadth favors the catalogue.
Do the two datasets cover the same ground?
Not even the same continent. ORSA quantifies the United States' outdoor recreation economy — value added, gross output, compensation and employment by activity and industry, national and state. One measures amounts; the other locates sources.
Which dataset covers more geography?
Neither, in absolute terms — they cover different countries. ORSA spans the United States: national level plus all 50 states and the District of Columbia, uniformly defined. The National Data Library spans the United Kingdom across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with individual entries typically drilling to local-authority or coordinate level. Cross-hemisphere questions need both instruments.
Which goes further back in time?
ORSA, decisively: a fixed 2012–2024 annual panel in the current release, with each new release extending the series by one data year. The National Data Library keeps no time axis at record level — currency varies by underlying dataset, and the Directory merely sorts by most recently updated. Trend analysis runs on the account; the catalogue tells you what exists now.
Do the two report the same kind of outdoor recreation number?
Only one of them reports numbers at all. ORSA publishes dollar and headcount measures — $696.7 billion in 2024 value added being the headline. There is no common quantity to compare, which is exactly why the pairing works as measurement plus discovery.
Which should a leisure-market analyst sample first?
Sample both, pick by fit. Start with ORSA if the brief sizes a market — US outdoor economy shares by state or activity-level value added for a segment plan. Start with the National Data Library if the brief hunts sources — UK council parks, playgrounds and open-space registers filtered by topic and format. Either record samples on request.