Fascinating facts and figures

More than 5.37 million people (5.95 million in 2019/20) are members of the National Trust. That’s more than the entire population of Costa Rica. It's thanks to the support of our members that we're able to protect over 500 places for everyone to enjoy now and in the future.

We depend on the skills and passion of our volunteers. More than 50,000 volunteers gave millions of hours of their time, in hundreds of different roles from beekeeping to firefighting, to support our work.

We’re the nation’s largest farm owner with more than 250,000 hectares of land and more than 1,500 tenant farmers. We're committed to farming with both food production and nature in mind, so plants and animals can thrive.

What do Downton Abbey, Harry Potter, Poldark and Game of Thrones have in common? The answer is the National Trust. Each of these productions has shot scenes at the historic houses and inspiring landscapes we look after. All the income from location fees supports our conservation work.

The Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds is the only surviving Regency playhouse in England. In existence since 1819, it is the third oldest theatre in the country. The Theatre Royal still welcomes performers and visitors.

Stourhead House, the Palladian villa set in its world famous gardens, was the inspiration for Lady Penelope’s residence, Creighton-Ward Mansion, in the 1960s puppet series Thunderbirds. In 2004, another of our historic houses, Cliveden, was a location for the Thunderbirds movie.

Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, is believed to be the place where, in 1665, the ‘notion of gravitation came to mind’ after he watched an apple fall. In 2015, apple pips from the tree were taken to the International Space Station by British astronaut Tim Peake.

On 12 December 1901, Marconi sent the world’s first transatlantic radio transmission from Poldhu to Newfoundland, a distance of 2,100 miles. Such was the scale of this achievement the station was visited by the future King and Queen in 1903.

A lighthouse has watched over mariners at the White Cliffs of Dover since the 1300s, but in 1904 it was upgraded to be the first lighthouse in the world to use electric light. So South Foreland took its place in history.

Chartwell was the much-loved family home of Sir Winston Churchill. The rooms remain much as they were when he lived there, with pictures, books and personal mementoes reflecting this great statesman, writer, painter and family man.

Children's author Beatrix Potter donated 1,600 hectares of countryside and 14 working farms to us in 1943, following the success of her much-loved Peter Rabbit stories. We also look after her 17th-century farmhouse, Hill Top, in Cumbria, where you can step into the pages of her famous children’s books.

Two small houses in Liverpool mark the beginning of one of the greatest cultural phenomena of the 20th century. One was the childhood home of John Lennon, the other of Sir Paul McCartney. In time they'd become half of The Beatles, but it was in these houses that they rehearsed some of their earliest music and wrote ‘She Loves You’.

With 180 registered parks and gardens, we care for the largest collection of historic gardens and parks in Europe – including many created by the most notable designers. At our Plant Conservation Centre in Devon we protect the rarest and most threatened species.

We are home to all 18 species of UK bats, making us the single most important landowner for bat conservation. Red squirrel numbers have increased thanks to new habitats. We’ve also re-introduced the large blue butterfly to England after it was declared extinct in 1979, and water voles to Exmoor.

In 1899 we bought just under a hectare of Wicken Fen, a wetland in Cambridgeshire, for £10. Now we look after 800 hectares. The area is one of Europe’s most important wetlands, providing a home to more than 9,000 species.

Between 1965 and 2015 our Neptune Coastline campaign raised the money for us to secure the future of 574 miles of coastline. We now look after over 780 miles of coastline, including British landmarks such as the White Cliffs of Dover, the Giant's Causeway and the Needles.

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters we received £79 million in fundraised income (£95.2 million in 2019/20). Of this, over £61 million went into caring for houses, gardens and collections. This included the £7.5 million restoration at Seaton Delaval Hall and a £10 million site-wide revitalisation project at Dyrham Park.

We look after places at nine of the UK's recognised UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the Lake District, the stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury, the Giant’s Causeway and Hadrian’s Wall.

Did you know we have 280 cafés serving millions of customers each year? They crack three million eggs, pour seven million hot drinks and serve more than two million scones. All of this helps fuel our visitors and conservation work.

We look after 39 pubs and inns, including the George Inn in Southwark which featured in Dickens’ Little Dorrit and is the only pub in London with a gallery, and The Crown Bar in Belfast which welcomed HRH the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their visit to the city in 2018.

The National Trust is committed to serving our visitors with high quality, fresh, seasonal food. 35 of our cafés use ingredients grown in their own kitchen gardens. Customers can enjoy produce from our tenant farmers.