The Museum seeks to understand its on-site audience of residents and tourists to San Diego. As of the 2000 census, San Diego County population numbered 2.8 million. Census race designations did not include a "Hispanic" category, but rather recorded the percentage of Hispanic origin of all other categories. Thus 27% of people in San Diego County claim Hispanic origin, even though they also identify as white (67%), some other race (13%), Asian (9%), African-American (6%), multiracial (5%), or Native American (1%).

The Museum's most recent visitor survey in summer 2001 used different ethnic categories. Of 461 respondents, white visitors comprised 72.8%, and 13% self-identified as Hispanic/Latino, in contrast to the 27% of San Diego County residents who claim Hispanic origin. Asian visitors were well represented (7%), and Native American visitors exceeded the percentage of county population (1.9%). But African-Americans represented only 1.2% of museum visitors, and multiracial visitors comprised 4.1% of the total. About 25% of the visitors surveyed said they spoke a language besides English in their home, and of those multilingual respondents, 50.5% spoke Spanish. This survey revealed museum visitors to be well educated: 86.9% had at least some college (23.9%), were college graduates (34.7%), or had done post-graduate work (28.3%).

Admissions data from April-October 2001 indicate an age breakdown of our audience that is approximately 52% adult, 39% children, and 9% seniors. Of children coming to the Museum, approximately 52% come in groups, and the remainder with their families. All visitors are also asked their zip code, and during this time period 30% responded (22,362). Of this sample, 63% were from San Diego, 15% were from other cities in California, and 22% were from out of state.