Picnic facts and stats
Everything we can back up about picnics: what people pack, what puts them off, where the word came from and a few world records. Every figure names its source.
What Britons pack
In June 2024 YouGov asked 2,114 British adults which foods they like to find at a picnic. Sandwiches won by a distance.
| Picnic food | Adults who like it |
|---|---|
| Sandwiches and wraps | 90% |
| Crisps | 87% |
| Fruit | 87% |
| Juices | 83% |
| Cakes | 82% |
| Cheeses | 80% |
| Salad | 79% |
| Sausage rolls | 74% |
| Scotch eggs | 58% |
| Pork pies | 56% |
Source: YouGov, 11 to 12 June 2024, 2,114 GB adults aged 18 and over.
What puts people off
The same survey asked what worries people about a picnic. The weather comes first, and wasps are close behind.
| Worry | Adults who share it |
|---|---|
| Unpredictable weather | 65% |
| Wasps and insects | 60% |
| Crowds | 29% |
| Transporting the food | 20% |
| Too many dogs | 20% |
| Packing up afterwards | 18% |
Source: YouGov, June 2024. That survey also found that 17% of adults had already enjoyed a picnic that year and planned more, and another 33% had not yet but meant to.
A more recent snapshot
A June 2026 press release from food maker Greencore reported that 37% of people say they picnic more than they did a few years ago, and that 83% picnic in groups of three or more. The most popular spots were the seaside (64%) and local parks (63%). The release does not give the sample size, so treat these as indicative rather than exact.
Where the word comes from
- 1640s: “picnic” arrives from the French piquenique. It first appears in print in 1649, as the name of a character in a French satirical poem.
- 1694: The French scholar Gilles Ménage describes it as a Paris custom where each guest pays a share.
- 1748: The earliest known English use, in a letter by Lord Chesterfield. A picnic was then a fashionable social event, not always held outdoors.
- 1842: The phrase “go on a picnic” is recorded. The picnic basket follows by 1857 and the picnic table by 1858.
Source: Online Etymology Dictionary and History Today.
A short picnic history
- 1801: About 200 wealthy young Londoners found the Pic Nic Society. Each member brings a dish and wine, and the society is closed down a year later. The cartoonist James Gillray mocks it in 1802.
- 1806: A children’s book by John Harris contains the earliest known reference to an outdoor picnic.
- 1808: Dorothy Wordsworth records a picnic on an island in Grasmere with 18 others.
- 1816: Jane Austen sends the characters of Emma on a picnic at Box Hill.
- 1862 to 1863: Édouard Manet paints Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe.
- 1908: The Wind in the Willows features one of the best-known picnic hampers in fiction.
Source: History Today.
Records and big picnics
- Longest picnic table: 407.27 metres, set in Tom Lee Park, Memphis, Tennessee on 25 May 2019 (Guinness World Records).
- Pan-European Picnic: on 19 August 1989 a picnic held on the Hungary and Austria border let hundreds of East Germans cross to the West.
- L’incroyable pique-nique: on 14 July 2000 people across France picnicked along about 1,000 kilometres of the Meridian Green line.
Source: Guinness World Records and Wikipedia.
Picnics around the world
- Japan: hanami means flower viewing, usually under cherry blossom, and it is a picnic in all but name. It is said to go back to the end of the 16th century.
- Egypt: Sham el-Nessim falls the day after Coptic Easter and marks the start of spring. Families picnic in parks and by the Nile.
- Glyndebourne, England: opera-goers famously picnic in the gardens during the long interval.
Source: Japan Guide, Egyptian Streets and Wikipedia.
Picnic dates
- International Picnic Day: 18 June. It is unofficial and nobody knows who started it.
- National Picnic Month: July, in the United States.
- National Picnic Week: a week every June, running since 2005.
Want to add your own number?
We are building the first world picture of how people picnic. The World Picnic Census will report its findings here once enough people have played.