The number of young people joining the National Trust has soared for a second consecutive year, according to the charity’s annual report, released today.
Young person’s membership, which is available to 18–25-year-olds for a donation of just over £4 a month, has grown in popularity by 26% on the previous year, equating to 50,600 new members, and taking the total for the past two years to over 90,000.
The charity is now encouraging young people and prospective members to try heritage for free this weekend, when the annual Heritage Open Days festival kicks off. For 10 days, thousands of cultural and community venues open their doors or put on live events as part of Europe’s biggest celebration of heritage.
Rene Olivieri CBE, Chair of the National Trust, said: “The surge in young people joining a conservation charity is good news for nature and good news for heritage. I’m thrilled that so many young people want to be part of this cause.
“But this isn’t the end of the story. Because as things stand, young people in the UK are inheriting a declining natural world and many are facing diminishing cultural opportunities due to decisions made by generations before them. We owe it to them to put that right and make nature and culture part of every young person’s life, whether that’s at the places we care for or outside them. That’s going to mean working harder to reach young people where they are and engaging them on their terms.
“Heritage Open Days is a good place to start, and I’d encourage everyone, of every age, to get out this weekend and embrace their local buildings, parks, pools, libraries, high streets and museums.”
Thousands of events are scheduled to be taking place in England during this year’s Heritage Open Days festival, which runs from 11-20 September 2026. People can swim for free in a 1930s lido in Peterborough, tour Liverpool on classic buses, step inside Dover’s Western Heights tunnels and gun rooms which date back to the Napoleonic Wars and only open once a year, and celebrate Black British culture and creativity in Leicester. The festival is brought to people by the National Trust and many Trust sites will be opening their doors for free.
Claudia Hayes is a National Trust Collections and House Officer, a member of the charity’s youth network and runs the popular ‘History with Claudia’ social media accounts. She said: “It’s fantastic that we’ve seen another big increase in young members. It proves that this isn’t a fleeting interest, it’s a growing trend, and it confirms what I hear from young people on social media everyday: that they’re excited by history and heritage and they want to get involved.
“This type of participation is so important. Because if we can engage young people now and get them to form positive associations with heritage and nature, then they will be more likely to care for these things in future.”
According to the charity’s data, Stourhead in Wiltshire, Calke Abbey in Derbyshire, and Attingham Park, near Shrewsbury, were the three most popular sites visited by young members in 2025/26. Calke Abbey has seen another uptick in visitors this year since the airing of the Peaky Blinders film, The Immortal Man, which was shot at the site. So-called “set-jetting” is an increasingly popular trend, with research suggesting more than half of 18 to 34-year-olds have visited somewhere after seeing it on screen.
The National Trust’s annual report also noted a 5% increase in overall visitors from the previous year, continuing a trend seen over the last few years. And a record £4.1m was raised from the Trust’s 263 second-hand bookshops. The shops, which are mostly run by volunteers and filled with books donated by the public, have grown substantially in the last decade, with income rising from £1.5m in 2018/19 to over £4m today.
Elsewhere, memberships kept steady at 2.62m (2.61m in 2024/25) and member retention – members keeping their memberships – remained high against an industry average of 77%. Fundraising rose slightly to £124.7m (£123.1m in 2024/25).
The Trust’s annual report can be found at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/annual-reports from Monday 7 September.