Annual reviews

A staff member welcoming visitors to the Museum.

2025/2026 was a truly record-breaking year for the Natural History Museum.

We welcomed over 7 million people into our galleries and gardens, becoming the UK’s most visited attraction!

Highlights include:

  • We created over 21 million opportunities for people to become advocates for the planet across all our activities.
  • We saw 2.9 million visitors to our new permanent gallery, Fixing Our Broken Planet.
  • We described 260 new species and digitised our six millionth specimen – a ground beetle, Calosoma sycophanta, known as the forest caterpillar hunter.
  • Research by our scientists identified three new species of live‑bearing tree toads from Tanzania, uncovering hidden biodiversity.
  • Over 1.6 million people worldwide visited one of our global touring exhibitions.
  • Over 9,000 educational settings registered for the National Education Nature Park, the flagship programme we are leading for the Department for Education.

Previous reviews

Thank you

A big thank you to our generous members, patrons, corporate supporters, individuals, trusts and foundations, various government departments and the wider public sector who’ve all supported us this past year.

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