Reports, Conferences, and Publications

COVES Aggregate Report - CY25: A Closer Look

Dive in to our newest aggregate report, where we take a closer look at visitors and their unique identities. In this report we explore the question: How do different visitors perceive our museums and the experiences offered?

The data shared in Understanding Our Visitors: A Closer Look were collected from January to December 2025, representing 46,761 surveys at 99 member institutions across the United States. In this report, we share the usual data about who visits, why they visit, and how they rate their visit, which you can use to compare your own to the COVES aggregate. We also explore five visitor identities (LGBTQ+, disability, gender identity, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity), their museums experience, and other demographic descriptors. Through these analyses, we hope to promote the use of disaggregation to encourage conversations around what museums provide and for whom. 

Have questions? Want to join or learn more than what you can find on our website? Send us a message – we love to talk about data and about COVES!

Statistically yours,

Ryan, Allison, and Mallory
COVES Team

Suggested citation: Auster, R., Anderson, A., Pennington, M., Bledsoe, K. L., Garibay, C., Cohn, S., & Wilson, G. (2026). Understanding our visitors: A closer look. Collaboration for Ongoing Visitor Experience Studies. understandingvisitors.org