A new report by the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation demonstrates that by any measure America's hunters and anglers are among the most prominent and influential of all demographic groups.

Spending more than $76 billion a year on hunting and fishing, the country's hunters and anglers would rank in the top 20 list on the Fortune 500.

That works out to about $208 million per day, spent not just on hunting and fishing related jobs, but also on retail, gas, restaurants, hotels – all the ancillary goods and services that hunters and anglers typically use in their outings. Sportsmen and women also generate $25 billion in federal, state and local taxes and directly support 1.6 billion jobs.

“Hunting [alone] pumps $23 billion into the economy, benefiting not only the manufacturers of hunting-related products, but everything from local mom and pop businesses to wildlife conservation in every state in America,” said National Shooting Sports Foundation president Doug Painter.

CSF's report uses the results from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation and compares hunters' and anglers' impact on the economy with that of other industries and constituencies. The report shows that hunting and fishing remain a very powerful force in American recreation, countering news reports that chose to focus on declining numbers of hunters and anglers.