A Surprising Number Of Americans Have Never Seen A Cow

A new survey of young Americans between the ages of 11 and 24 has provided a somewhat shocking statistic (at least to those of us in the Midwest).

ParkedInParadise, an RV travel website, just released some details of their survey of 3,500 people (asking about their travel experiences), and one of their findings is somewhat of a head-scratcher.

33% of the survey participants say that they've never seen a cow in person.

That wasn't the only question they asked, obviously. The 11-24 age group weighed in with some other thoughts as well. 42% of participants said they’ve never left the U.S., while 15% said they’ve never been outside of the state where they were born.

And, as a signal that their demographic is sick and tired of the pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns, 88% said that they would love to (and plan on) traveling a lot more once we put this COVID-19 mess behind us.

The research also revealed that 9% of people were completely happy with their experiences and achievements with 73% wishing that they could experience more.

The main reasons for not being able to experience more were cited as:

Not having enough money – 80%
Not having enough time – 77%
Having too many other responsibilities – 62%
Not having a companion to experience things with – 54%

ParkedInParadise's young Americans survey had these nuggets, too:

More than half (58%) have never tried any form of DIY project, with four out of ten (43%) never experiencing the great outdoors with activities such as hiking or camping. In a similar vein, more than a quarter (27%) have never seen the sunrise. And, 19% and 13% of people never cooked a meal from scratch or sent snail mail.

Traveling the world to cross things off of your bucket list will have to wait for a while yet, but the getting up-close-and-personal thing with cows doesn't have to. Have the kids not heard of the new wellness trend of cow-hugging (also called "Cow-Cuddling")?