The 20 most visited museums in the world

The Louvre Museum in Paris (France) became the most visited in the world last year. In 2017, a total of 8.1 million people contemplated the works of art that houses the Parisian art gallery, which represented an increase of 9.5% over the figure of the previous year.

This increase in the number of visitors allowed the Louvre, which had been third in 2016, to surpass in the ranking the National Museum of China, located in Beijing, and the National Air and Space Museum of Washington DC (United States), which they had occupied the top two positions in 2016.

These data appear in the annual “Theme Index – Museum Index” for the year 2017 prepared by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and AECOM.

In 2017, the third place in the ranking was shared by the aforementioned National Air and Space Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, both with 7 million visitors.

The Vatican Museums, with 6.43 million people, ranked fifth in the ranking of the most visited in the world.

Among the top 20 museums by visitor volume there are six from the United States, five from the United Kingdom, three from China, two from France and one from Vatican City, Taiwan, Spain and Russia.

For cities, London is the leader with five museums, ahead of Washington DC, which has four. Paris, Beijing and New York have two museums among the 20 most visited, and the rest are divided between Vatican City, Shanghai, Taipei, St. Petersburg and Madrid.

In the 17th place in this ranking is Reina Sofía in Madrid, which has 3.89 million visitors in 2017, 6.9% more than the previous year.

Of the 20 most visited museums in the world, 10 are free and in another ten you have to pay entrance fee.

Websites of the 20 most visited museums in the world: 

  1. Louvre Museum (Paris, France)
  2. National Museum of China (Beijing, China)
  3. National Air and Space Museum (Washington DC, USA)
  4. MET Museum (New York, EUA.)
  5. Vaticans Museums (Vatican City)
  6. Shangai Science and Technology Museum (Shangai, China)
  7. National Museum of Natural History (Washington DC, USA)
  8. British Museum (London, United Kingdom)
  9. Tate Modern (London, United Kingdom)
  10. National Art Gallery (Washington DC, USA)
  11. National Gallery (London, United Kingdom)
  12. American Museum of Natural History (New York, USA)
  13. National Palace Museum (Taipei, Taiwan)
  14. National History Museum (London, United Kingdom)
  15. Hermitage Museum (Sant Petersburg, Rússia)
  16. Museum of Science and Technology of China (Beijing, China)
  17. Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid, Spain)
  18. National Museum of American History (Washington DC, USA.)
  19. Victoria and Albert Museum (London, United Kingdom)
  20. Centre Pompidou (Paris, France)