Is this why Americans have hit the brakes on the #vanlife dream?
Is this why Americans have hit the brakes on the #vanlife dream?
After a boom during the pandemic, Americans are no longer embracing vanlife with as much enthusiasm as they did during lockdown.
Plenty of pandemic-era habits have stuck around — Zoom calls, grocery delivery, comfy pants — but living out of a van freely on the open road, it seems, has not had the same staying power.
Vanlife represents the outdoorsy lifestyle centered around mobile shelters like camping trailers, recreational vehicles, and retrofitted vans. Starting in 2020, as cities emptied and remote work became the norm, thousands of people took to this relatively cheap and crowd-free way to explore the country. As they traveled, they fueled the trend by sharing their most idyllic experiences on social media with the hashtag #vanlife.
However, new research conducted by Motointegrator and the data experts at DataPulse Research suggests that many people who signed on to vanlife at the height of the pandemic are now putting it in their rearview mirror.
Sales of RVs — a good proxy for all kinds of camping vehicles, including custom retrofitted vans — have not only cooled off but have fallen below pre-pandemic levels, based on an analysis of sales data. What is more, the number of households that camp in RVs has also dropped back to levels not seen since the 2018–2019 period, following a rapid spike during the height of the pandemic, according to a similar analysis of RV camping activity.
Motointegrator
It turns out, when you sell a record number of campers in a few short years, there’s not a lot of fresh demand left after the rush, which is the key reason why RV sales today are lower than they were even a decade ago.
“The pandemic was such a massive disruption [to RV sales] that the previously observed trends were no longer applicable,” a November 2024 report by the news site ModernCampground.com notes. “Indeed, had RV sales continued on the path that was established pre-COVID-19, it is estimated that there would have been continued consistent growth year-over-year.”
The #vanlife dream
This is not to say vanlife is completely gone. Its popularity just seems to be returning to pre-pandemic norms. The #vanlife hashtag dates back to the early 2010s when a New Yorker named Foster Huntington quit his corporate job to live on the road. Along his journey, he found many others living in vans, preserving a subculture that began with the hippies of the 1960s. Huntington used the hashtag when he posted photos of his new life on social media, and, soon enough, #vanlife began to trend among a rising generation of free-spirited people who followed in his footsteps.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, people around the world, freshly untethered from their office jobs, saw an opportunity to embark on their own on-the-road adventures. Across the U.S., there was a surge in RV sales, from 400,000 shipments in 2019 to 600,000 in 2021, according to the RV Industry Association.
Those figures do not account for retrofitted vans, which are beloved by the vanlife community. These vans, often former work vehicles or delivery vans, exploded in popularity thanks to their budget-friendly customization options and flexibility. Unlike larger trailers or bus-like mobile homes, they are easier to drive and park while still being more comfortable than tents.
However, securing one became difficult; as CNN reported in 2021, companies that retrofit vans suddenly had yearslong waitlists — and that was assuming the customer had a van to retrofit given the competition. During lockdowns, online orders for household items surged and Amazon needed to expand their fleet of van models — namely, Mercedes Sprinters, Ford Transits and RAM ProMasters — which happen to be the preferred choices for vanlifers, as well.
The end of the dream
Nonetheless, many Americans did succeed in landing their own recreational vehicle. The race to get (or retrofit) RVs created an influx of newbie owners. As shown by the chart below, more than half (55%) of today’s RV owners are newbies who have owned their vehicle for just five years or less.
Motointegrator // DataPulse Research
The vanlife movement appears to have deflated as quickly as it ballooned in pandemic-era America. For many, the vanlife lifestyle turned out to be a detour, not a destination. As a result, many vehicles bought during the pandemic are not racking up much mileage today.
Some 10 million households, or close to 8% of all households in the U.S., camped in an RV last year — and around 8 million of those campers were RV owners. That might seem like a lot, but it is down from the 15 million (nearly 12% of households) that camped in an RV at the 2022 peak.
The drop in vanlifers is also evident in yearly survey data that tracks campers by experience level. The share of inexperienced campers (those who were brand new to camping or who had started “in the last few years”) peaked in the years after the pandemic’s onset, according to Kampgrounds of America.
In 2022, people who were relatively new to camping accounted for more than 40% of all campers. After that peak though, the numbers dropped off pretty quickly. The mad rush to join the vanlife community was over, new blood was not coming into the vanlife community as quickly, and there was attrition among the vanlifers who had given it a shot. By 2024 the share of relatively new campers had dropped to 16% — levels that were typical before the pandemic hit.
Motointegrator // DataPulse Research
There are many reasons why the dream did not live long. For one, vanlife is not the “Insta-glam” life it is cracked up to be. There are difficult realities of vanlife, as New York Times essayist Caity Weaver captured in her own pursuit of the idyllic lifestyle in 2022, noting that just the act of sleeping in a van was “cramped, slovenly and bad.”
Vanlife also became impractical as life got back to normal. As the major waves of COVID-19 petered out, managers became less tolerant of the work-from-anywhere approach, making it difficult for most to juggle both vanlife and their careers.
Motointegrator // DataPulse Research
Still, vanlife left its mark
While vanlife may have been a flash-in-the-pan for many, the overall number of people who seek outdoorsy experiences, including RVing, tent camping, or glamping, may now start to stabilize to normal growth levels. Prior to the pandemic, it was estimated that the growth would be about 2 million additional households a year.
Motointegrator // DataPulse Research
As the camping community returns to normal, it is interesting to note that a few things have, in fact, changed for good. For one, there has been “a notable increase in younger and more diverse [RV] owners compared to previous years,” a RV Industry Association report notes. “Younger generations are much more engaged than they used to be.”
Indeed, those who have stuck around are more committed to the lifestyle. Today, owners use their RVs a median of 30 days a year, up 50% from the 20 days reported in 2021. And campgrounds have tried to accommodate them, offering more amenities like WiFi, according to Kampgrounds of America.
Perhaps vanlife is now how it was always intended to be: a smaller, scrappier community that genuinely wants the open road, the early mornings in nature, and yes, the occasional headache of a flat tire in the middle of nowhere.
This story originally appeared on Motointegrator, was produced in collaboration with DataPulse Research, and was reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
