Most parents feel it’s safe to send kids to summer camp this year

Jamie BallardData Journalist
May 10, 2021, 3:15 PM GMT+0

With summer nearly here, many parents may be deciding whether or not it’s safe to send their children to camp this year.

New data from YouGov suggests that 47% of Americans believe it’s safe for children under 18 to go to summer camp this year. Slightly fewer (42%) believe that it is unsafe.

Among those who are parents to at least one child under 18, a majority (57%) think that it is safe for children to go to summer camp this year. Another 37% of parents are still cautious, however.

Among those Americans who attended summer camp themselves as children, 57% believe it is safe for children to go to camp this year. Among those who did not ever go to summer camp themselves, fewer (39%) think it is safe for children to go this year.

There is widespread consensus on the question of whether summer camps should require proof of a negative coronavirus test before children can attend an overnight summer camp. About seven in 10 (68%) Americans say they support this, while one in five (20%) are opposed.

The results are similar among parents: 73% say they support this policy, 20% are opposed.

The belief that summer camp is safe may be linked in part to the fact that COVID-19 deaths are declining, as well as the feeling among many parents that their families are ready to return to something resembling normalcy.

A separate poll conducted by YouGov and The Economist in March 2021 found that 51% of parents wanted their children to return to in-person schooling. Among the reasons why, 64% said they wanted peer interaction for their child, and 57% expressed a desire for returning to a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy.

See full results here.

Related: Americans think stay-at-home parenting should be considered a job

Methodology: 15,440 US adults 18+ were surveyed between April 29 – May 2, 2021. The responding sample is weighted to be representative of the US population.

Explore more data & articles