Splash pad Q&A: history

Splash pads went from a niche European import in the early 1990s to over 12,000 documented installations across the US by the mid-2020s. Growth accelerated after 2005 as municipalities replaced aging wading pools, and again post-2015 as developers added them to apartment complexes, malls, and parks.

A wading pool is a shallow standing-water pool 6-18 inches deep. A splash pad has zero-depth water with no standing pool. Wading pools dominated US parks from the 1950s-1990s but have been largely replaced by splash pads due to lifeguard requirements and illness-outbreak risks.