Chicago-area museum, zoo attendance slightly down

Chicago-area zoos and museums saw a slight drop in attendance last year.

The consortium called Museums in the Park released attendance numbers on Monday for 15 Chicago-area attractions. This year attendance was 14.7 million. That’s down 2.7 percent compared with the 15.1 million visitors recorded during 2012. There were 14.4 million visitors during 2011, when attendance remained steady from 2010.

Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo topped the list with 3.4 million visitors. Brookfield Zoo had 2.1 million visitors and Shedd Aquarium had 2 million. However those attendance numbers are all slightly down from 2012.

Some institutions saw increases in attendance. Those include the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, which increased its attendance by 19 percent.