Although the number of Americans who participated in at least one sport or fitness activity grew for the fifth consecutive year in 2022, participation in group fitness-based activities continued to struggle with some signs of recovery, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) Topline Participation Report, released last week.
In 2022, 237 million people in the United States (77.6 percent of Americans ages 6 and older) participated in at least one sport or fitness activity, which is a 9.2 percent increase from 2017 and 1.9 percent increase from 2021. This marks the fifth consecutive year that participation has increased.
“This year’s report reinforces that Americans are prioritizing physical activity as they establish habits and routines in a post-pandemic environment,” SFIA President and CEO Tom Cove said. “But we will make a mistake if we take some good signals for granted. Looking forward, sports and fitness delivery systems must commit to providing accessible, reasonably priced and high-quality experiences to keep athletes engaged.”
Three-Year Participation Trends
Despite the overall participation growth, health club-based activities were not typically back to 2019 participation rates, according to the report. Of the 24 fitness activities tracked, eight had an increase in participation in the past three years: Pilates training (11.6 percent); yoga (10.4 percent); kettlebells (6.5 percent); dance, step and other choreographed exercise to music (5 percent); barre (3.8 percent); free weights (dumbbells/hand weights) (3.3 percent); walking for fitness (3 percent) and free weights (barbells) (1.1 percent).
The gym-based activities with the biggest decreases in participation from 2019 to 2022 were group stationary cycling (-36.9 percent), cross-training style workouts (-31.7 percent), boot camp style training (-24 percent), stair climbing machine (-24 percent) and cardio kickboxing (-21.3 percent).
One-Year Participation Trends
Despite its major three-year decline in participation, cardio kickboxing had the largest increase in participation for fitness-based activities from 2021 to 2022 with an 8.5 percent increase. Similarly, group stationary cycling made a bit of a comeback from 2021 to 2022 with a 5.5 percent participation increase, putting it third in growth for the year. Pilates training participation had the second highest increase in participation between 2021 and 2022, growing by 5.8 percent. Barre came in fourth with 3.9 percent growth for the year.
The biggest one-year decline in participation involved cross-style training workouts, which decreased 5.3 percent from 2021 to 2022. That was followed by bodyweight exercise and bodyweight accessory-assisted training (-2.6 percent), running/jogging (-2.4 percent), and elliptical motion/cross trainer use (-2.1 percent).
Most Participants
The fitness activity with the highest number of participants was walking for fitness with 114.8 million Americans participating in 2022, a decrease of 1.9 percent from 2021 but a 3 percent increase from 2019.
Use of the treadmill came in second with 53.6 million participants in 2022, but that was a decrease of 0.1 percent from 2021 and a decrease of 5.7 percent in 2019.
Use of free weights (dumbbells/hand weights) came in third for number of participants with 53.1 million Americans participating in 2022, a one percent increase since 2021 and a 3.3 percent increase from 2019.
Running/jogging came in fourth with 47.8 million Americans participating in 2022, but that was a 2.4 percent decrease from 2021 and a 4.5 percent decrease from 2019.
Fifth on the list was yoga with 33.6 million people participating in 2022, which was 10.4 percent more than in 2019 but a 2.1 percent drop since 2021.
The fitness activity with the most core participants (those who did the activity 50 or more times during the year) was walking for fitness with 76,644 core participants in 2022. The fitness activities with the next highest core participants were free weights (dumbbells/hand weights) (30,712), treadmill users (27,189), runners/joggers (24,040), weight/resistance machines (17,623), free weights (barbell) (15,103) and yoga (13,228).
Racquet Sports Growth
Racquet sports were the big winner, mostly due to pickleball. Participation in racquet sports increased 17.6 percent or about 8 million participants compared to 2021, the highest growth of any of the activities tracked by SFIA. Pickleball made up the largest percentage of that growth with 85.7 percent increase from 2021. Tennis participation increased 4.3 percent.
The 2023 Topline Participation Report is free to SFIA members and is available for purchase for $350 to non-members.