Disneyland is the first Disney park that opened in Anaheim, California in 1955. Since its opening, the resort has expanded and is now home to two theme parks, three Disneyland Resort hotels, and the shopping and dining district called Downtown Disney.
Below, we have gathered statistics on the resort's size and different areas, attendance figures, hotels, holidays, construction and early years, and more for your reference. All statistics on this page have been verified with multiple sources and in most instances have been verified via a release directly from Disneyland.
In 2023, Disneyland's total amount of visitors between Disneyland Park (17,250,000) and Disney California Adventure (10,000,000) amounted to 27,250,000 annually for the resort, and based on those numbers, an average of 74,657 guests at the Disneyland Resort every single day between Disneyland Park (47,260) and Disney California Adventure Park (27,397).
At Walt Disney World, 48,770,000 visitors attended a theme park at the resort in 2023. The parks broke out in attendance to have Magic Kingdom: 17,720,000, Animal Kingdom: 8,770,000, EPCOT: 11,980,000, and Hollywood Studios: 10,300,000. Between Walt Disney World's 48,770,000 visitors in 2023 and Disneyland's 27,250,000, the combined total between Walt Disney World and Disneyland for the total number of visitors at the Disney theme park in the United States was 76,020,000.
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Disneyland Size Today
Disneyland consists of 490 acres. On that property are two Disney-owned theme parks, three Disney-owned hotels, and the shopping and dining district called Downtown Disney.
Disneyland Park has nine themed lands: Main Street U.S.A., Fantasyland, Frontierland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland, Mickey's Toontown, Critter Country, New Orleans Square, and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge was the largest single-themed land expansion in Disneyland park history at 14 acres.
Disney California Adventure has eight themed lands: Buena Vista Street, Hollywood Land, Avengers Campus, Grizzly Peak, Pixar Pier, Paradise Garden Park, Cars Land, and San Fransokyo Square.
The Downtown Disney District is 20 acres in size with more than 300,000 square feet of retail space.
Disneyland Attendance Figures in Recent Years
Disneyland Park Attendance
| Year | Disneyland Park Attendance |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 17,250,000 |
| 2022 | 16,881,000 |
| 2021 | 8,573,000 |
| 2020 | 3,674,000 |
| 2019 | 18,666,000 |
Disneyland Park Average Daily Visitors (calculated from above data):
- Disneyland Park Average Daily Visitors in 2023: 47,260
- Disneyland Park Average Daily Visitors in 2022: 46,249
- Disneyland Park Average Daily Visitors in 2021: 23,488
- Disneyland Park Average Daily Visitors in 2020: 10,066
- Disneyland Park Average Daily Visitors in 2019: 51,140
Disney California Adventure Attendance
| Year | Disney California Adventure Park Attendance |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 10,000,000 |
| 2022 | 9,000,000 |
| 2021 | 4,977,000 |
| 2020 | 1,919,000 |
| 2019 | 9,861,000 |
Disney California Adventure Average Daily Visitors (calculated from above data):
- Disney California Adventure Average Daily Visitors in 2023: 27,397
- Disney California Adventure Average Daily Visitors in 2022: 24,658
- Disney California Adventure Average Daily Visitors in 2021: 13,636
- Disney California Adventure Average Daily Visitors in 2020: 5,258
- Disney California Adventure Average Daily Visitors in 2019: 27,016
Disneyland Statistics Today
There are roughly 35,000 Cast Members that work at Disneyland. Disneyland is the largest employer in Orange County, California.
Disneyland Resort cast members speak approximately 32 different languages.
The Disneyland Railroad trains and the Mark Twain Riverboat are powered by biodiesel made from recycled cooking oil from making foods like French Fries in the theme parks. This saves approximately 200,000 gallons of petroleum diesel each year.
There are over 160 food and beverage locations at the resort and there are over 15,000 recipes used. Many of the chefs at the Disneyland Resort graduated from prestigious culinary schools.
Since launching a Food Scraps program in 2013, Disneyland Resort continues to make great strides in recovering food waste. Today, Disneyland Resort diverts over five million pounds of food waste from landfills annually.
More than 3,000 species of plants native to over 40 countries are used in Disneyland horticulture. The landscape at the Disneyland Resort includes approximately 18,000 trees and 125,000 shrubs.
The Jungle Cruise landscaping has evolved over the years since the ride opened in 1955 into a separate ecosystem. The trees planted have created a canopy that allows species of ground plants to grow that wouldn't typically thrive in Southern California. This forest canopy stretches almost 100 feet tall.
Disneyland Resort Hotels
There are roughly 2,400 Hotel Rooms combined at the three Disneyland Resort Hotels. There is about 200,000 square feet of convention and meeting space throughout the Disneyland Resort Hotels.
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, an AAA Four Diamond Hotel, is Disneyland's most luxurious hotel with its design inspired by the turn-of-the-century California Craftsman movement. It has 948 rooms and 71 Disney Vacation Club Villas. Hotel guests have access to a private entrance to Disney California Adventure that lands them in the Grizzly Peak section of the park. The Grand Californian Hotel & Spa has three pools: the Fountain Pool, the Redwood Pool with a 90-foot-long waterslide that curves around the giant stump of a Redwood tree, and the Mariposa Pool. The hotel has suites, a convention facility, and several dining options including the Napa Rose, Storytellers Cafe, Hearthstone Lounge, and GCH Craftsman Grill.
The Storytellers Cafe offers the Character Dining experience Mickey's Tales of Adventure for breakfast and brunch and a dinner buffet without characters. The award-winning Napa Rose is an upscale dining experience at the hotel with more than 30 certified sommeliers, including advanced sommeliers, and a 17,000-bottle cellar with more than 1,000 different labels and 80 wines available by the glass.
The Disneyland Hotel is an AAA Four Diamond Hotel that was the original hotel built on Disneyland property. It has 973 rooms and one of the largest contiguous convention spaces in the Western United States at 136,000 square feet. The hotel is home to several dining experiences including Goofy's Kitchen, Tangaroa Terrace, Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar, and Palm Breeze Bar. The Disneyland Hotel has a pool area with 2 retro-themed pools and 2 waterslides, the approximate 25-foot-high, 180-foot-long Orange Monorail slide and the 13-foot-high, 80-foot-long Yellow Monorail slide. The hotel contains the Discovery Tower, a Disney Vacation Club tower.
Pixar Place Hotel is a 481-room hotel themed to Pixar storytelling. It has dining options including the Great Maple, Sketchpad Cafe, and Small Bytes. The hotel also has the Creators Club, a concierge lounge celebrating the collaboration between Walt Disney Imagineering and Pixar at Disney parks. The hotel has recreation including a rooftop pool area inspired by Finding Nemo featuring the 186-feet Crush's Surfin' Slide and the Pixar Shorts Court where you can play games inspired by animated Pixar shorts. Guests who are staying at the Pixar Place Hotel can use a private entrance to Disney California Adventure that lands them in the Paradise Gardens Park section of the park.
Disneyland Holidays Statistics
The Resort Enhancement window display team creates seasonal overlays for more than 160 windows around the resort. The window display team is also responsible for approximately 2,000 artificial floral arrangements; 20,000 props in 64 stores and 12,000 props in 32 food locations.
The Christmas tree on Main Street, U.S.A., stands 60 feet above ground and five feet below ground. It is assembled in November each year, with approximately 1,200 branches; 25,000 pine tip ends; nearly 1,800 custom Victorian-inspired ornaments; 100 candles and over 5,000 LED lights.
Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland Park celebrates the Pumpkin Festival every autumn, with hundreds of pumpkins on display. No two pumpkins are the same.
During the holiday season at Disneyland Resort, Resort Enhancement cast members decorate with nearly 200 trees, 320 wreaths and 8,000 feet of garland. More than 25,000 poinsettias, cyclamen and flowering plants are placed and planted around the resort for additional festive decoration.
Original Disneyland Construction and Early Years Statistics
Disneyland opened to the public on July 17, 1955.
Initially, Walt Disney purchased the original 160 acres that was Disneyland Park for $879,000. The purchase was announced in May 1954.
The original budget for Disneyland that was shared with the press in 1954 was $9 million. The cost of Disneyland construction ballooned to $17 million by the time the park opened.
When Disneyland was first announced on May 2, 1954, the park was set to feature True Life Adventure Land, Land of Tomorrow, Frontier Land, Fantasy Land, Recreation Land, and Holiday Land.
In that initial press release Walt Disney called the park a “combination world fair, playground, community center and a museum of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy”. That same release stated that the park would eventually employ 500 people.
Critics called the park “Walt's folly” before it opened and predicted that the project would fail.
Disneyland opened with 35 rides and attractions when the park opened. 13 of these rides remain. Disney was limited on budget so many plans were scaled back and last-minute exhibits were installed.
Disneyland opening day was called “black Sunday” because of how many different things went wrong that day. Cement wasn't yet dry in the streets, there weren't enough drinking fountains due to a plumbers strike, and double the amount of people showed up.
28,000 people visited Disneyland on opening day though only 11,000 were invited.
Dave MacPherson was the first guest at Disneyland. He received a lifetime pass and visited the parks yearly until his death in 2018.
Opening Dates For Disneyland Additions
Disneyland Park: July 17, 1955. This was the original Disney park that opened in Anaheim, California.
Disney California Adventure Park: February 8, 2001. It opened as “Disney's California Adventure Park” and in 2010 was renamed to its current name still used today.
Downtown Disney: January 12, 2001. Downtown Disney opened as part of a major expansion to the resort that introduced Disney California Adventure and Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.
The Disneyland Hotel: October 5, 1955. The Disneyland Hotel opened a few months after Disneyland's opening on July 17, 1955. The hotel was originally owned by Jack Wrather before Disney purchased it in 1988.
Pixar Place Hotel: 1984. The hotel was originally owned by the Tokyu group and opened as the Emerald of Anaheim before it was renamed the Pan Pacific Hotel in 1989. It was purchased by Disney in 1995 and renamed the Disneyland Pacific Hotel. In 2000, its name was changed again to Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel for the expansion that introduced Disney California Adventure. Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel underwent a reimagining and officially reopened as the Pixar Place Hotel on January 30, 2024.
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel: January 2, 2001. The hotel opened as part of the expansion that introduced Downtown Disney and Disney California Adventure to the resort.
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