Family reunions remain a meaningful reason for Americans to travel and reconnect. In a September 2022 YouGov poll, 21% of Americans said they had attended a family reunion within the previous year, while about half said they had attended one within the previous decade. Earlier studies describe reunions that range from small gatherings to events with hundreds of attendees, with travel, shared meals, and time together at the center.
Table of contents
- How often Americans attend family reunions
- Attendance size and reunion duration
- Planning, proximity, and travel distance
- Spending and funding patterns
- Attendee demographics and trip profiles
- Amenities, activities, and social experiences
How often Americans attend family reunions
The most recent broad measure in this evidence set comes from YouGov’s September 2022 survey, All on the family: ties, proximity, and estrangement. It measured whether Americans had attended a family reunion over several time horizons:
- 21% said they had attended a family reunion within the previous year.
- 38% said they had attended one within the previous five years.
- About 50% said they had attended one within the previous decade.
- 19% said they had never attended a family reunion.
These figures describe Americans’ reported experience as of September 2022; they are not a forecast of future attendance. They also leave room for different interpretations of what respondents considered a family reunion.
Older research points in a similar direction, although the populations and dates differ. An NBC News study from 2007 found that 22% of respondents reported attending a family reunion within one year. A 2012 AARP survey found 20% reporting a family reunion within one year. In a 2011 American Express survey, 23% of American families said they were planning to attend a family or school reunion.
Travel-focused studies measure a narrower group. In the 2009 Ypartnership/Harrison Group study, 23% of leisure travelers said a family reunion was a primary reason for taking at least one trip during the previous year. In the Yun and Lehto study from the same period, 33% of family travelers attended family reunions. A 2014 HomeAway survey found that 63% of respondents had attended a family reunion, including 29% within the previous two years. Because these are different survey populations, they should be compared as separate measures rather than combined into one trend.
Attendance size and reunion duration
The 2013 reunion survey summarized in Characteristics of family reunion travelers shows that reunion size was concentrated in the middle ranges. The largest reported group was reunions with 51 to 100 attendees, representing 45.2% of surveyed reunions. The same survey reported the following distribution:
| Reunion size | Share of surveyed reunions |
|---|---|
| 2–25 attendees | 3.2% |
| 26–50 attendees | 12.1% |
| 51–100 attendees | 45.2% |
| 101–150 attendees | 17.2% |
| 151–200 attendees | 7.6% |
| 201–250 attendees | 3.2% |
| 251–300 attendees | 3.8% |
The listed categories show why planning a reunion often involves more than arranging a meal for a few relatives. At the same time, the distribution should not be treated as a national profile of every family reunion: the 2013 and 2012 figures were based on convenience-sample reunion surveys summarized in the peer-reviewed study.
Duration also varied, but three-night reunions were prominent. In the 2013 survey, 46% of surveyed reunions lasted three nights and 20% lasted two nights. A separate 2014 HomeAway survey reported an average family reunion trip length of five days. The differing measures may reflect differences between a reunion event’s overnight duration and the full travel party’s trip length.
Planning, proximity, and travel distance
Family location is an important part of reunion planning. In the September 2022 YouGov poll, 54% of Americans said their closest extended family member lived in the same city or town. Another 29% said that relative lived in the same neighborhood, while 19% said the closest extended family member lived in the same household. Fifteen percent said that person lived in a different state.
Destination priorities in the 2009 family-reunion traveler study reflected both convenience and family history. Being closest to most attendees was the most important destination-selection criterion for 36.5% of family reunion travelers. A place with historical value to the family was the top criterion for 18.6%. For genealogy-minded families, the second figure highlights the potential importance of ancestral homes, hometowns, cemeteries, and other meaningful places, although the study does not specify which historical sites travelers selected.
Planning commonly began months ahead. In the 2014 HomeAway survey, 55% of travelers started planning their reunion trip six months to one year in advance. That lead time can accommodate venue selection, travel coordination, lodging, meals, and activities, but the survey does not identify which planning tasks required the most time.
The 2011 survey reported substantial driving among family reunion travelers. The average distance driven during the most recent reunion trip was 524.26 miles. The median was 300 miles, and the modal distance was 200 miles. The average being higher than the median indicates that longer trips influenced the average, but the reported figures do not establish how many travelers drove versus used other forms of transportation.
Spending and funding patterns
The 2013 survey reported a wide range of reunion expenditures excluding transportation: from $10 to $97,000. The average was $7,276.66, while the median was $3,050. The gap between the average and median is consistent with a distribution in which some high-cost reunions raise the average. These are reported historical survey values, not current prices or a recommended reunion budget.
Families used several approaches to divide or cover costs. In a 2012 survey summarized by the peer-reviewed study, more than 57% of family reunions charged fees for activities and meals, while attendees usually paid their own lodging and transportation. Thirty-two percent reported totaling all costs and dividing the total among attendees. Twenty-four percent used fundraising activities to cover costs, and more than 10% used potlucks as part of their funding or food-cost approach. A benefactor covered all or part of the cost for 5.6% of respondents.
Services were also common in an older 2006 reunion survey. Catering was used by 69% of surveyed family reunions, and photographers were used by 47.4%. These figures can help describe the range of arrangements families have used, but they should not be read as current vendor-use rates. The 2006, 2012, and 2013 data come from older surveys, and the 2012 and 2013 convenience-sample results are not nationally representative.
Attendee demographics and trip profiles
The Project 85 dataset described in Characteristics of family reunion travelers provides a profile of surveyed travelers from a 2011 survey. Ages ranged from 19 to 86 years, with an average age of 44. The group was 52.8% male and 47.2% female. More than 70% reported at least some college attendance.
Relationship and household measures added more detail. Among surveyed travelers, 55.2% were married and another 7.6% lived with a significant other. A further 24.3% were single. Annual household income was $75,000 or less for 55.9% of travelers in the dataset.
The travel party itself was often larger than one person but remained manageable for lodging and transportation decisions. Party size ranged from one to 16 people, with an average of 3.09 people. Family reunion travelers spent an average of 4.65 nights away from home.
These demographic and trip-profile figures describe the Project 85 study population and its 2011 measurement period. They should not be generalized to all families, all reunion attendees, or current travelers without additional research. In particular, the dataset is useful for showing the diversity of ages and household situations represented, not for establishing a national demographic benchmark.
Amenities, activities, and social experiences
HomeAway’s 2014 survey focused on what people valued during reunions. Spending time together was the most cherished reunion memory for 81% of attendees. Group meals were the second-most-cherished memory for 60%. Cooking great food was identified by 51% as the best way to impress family at a reunion.
The preferred physical setting supported both togetherness and privacy. Shared space to gather as a family ranked among the best amenities for 54% of HomeAway reunion travelers. Separate bedrooms for personal space ranked highly for 38%, and a kitchen for preparing and eating meals together did so for 33%. Vacation homes were the ideal family-reunion accommodation for 33% of respondents.
The same survey measured behaviors respondents considered likely to offend relatives. Drinking too much was identified by 28% as the top way to offend family members, while 26% pointed to excessive attention to phones or tablets. These figures describe respondents’ perceptions in the 2014 HomeAway survey; they do not measure the actual frequency of either behavior at reunions.
Family reunion travelers also reported a broader activity mix than non-reunion leisure travelers in the 2011 survey. Reunion travelers pursued an average of 7.2 activities while traveling, compared with 4.9 among non-reunion leisure travelers. The statistic does not identify the activities, but it supports a picture of reunions as multi-activity trips rather than single-purpose gatherings.
Taken together, the available research portrays family reunions as periodic gatherings that often require advance coordination, long-distance travel, shared cost decisions, and space for both group connection and individual rest. The evidence is mostly U.S. survey research, with measurements spanning 2006 through September 2022. No family-reunion-specific 2026 measurement is represented here, so the older observations should not be relabeled as current.
Sources
- All on the family: ties, proximity, and estrangement, YouGov, September 2022.
- HomeAway survey finds families actually do want to spend time together, Travel Daily News, reporting HomeAway survey results from 2014.
- Characteristics of family reunion travelers, peer-reviewed study summarizing the cited family-reunion surveys and the Project 85 dataset.