Sports & Fitness Industry Association Releases 2024 Topline Participation Report

Pickleball remains the fastest-growing sport in America, says the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, and all of the seven major sport and fitness physical activity categories showed increased year-over-year rates of participation in the SFIA’s 2024 Topline Participation Report.

In 2023, 242 million Americans (78.8%) participated in an activity one or more times, a 2.2% increase from last year. The number of people that have participated in an activity has increased every year for 10 years, growing by five million in 2023. Inactivity also decreased to its lowest number since SFIA began tracking the metric – 21.2%, or 64.9 million people, reported doing none of the 124 activities at least once.

The SFIA report also explores inactivity by income, showing increased rates of inactivity correlated to decreased family income levels, an area that calls out for greater attention. The Topline Report tracks rates of Americans aged six and older across 124 sports, fitness and outdoor activities and includes 10-year trend analyses by activity category, data deep-dives into inactivity and surveys of Americans’ aspirations to take on new activities in 2023.

“These participation numbers are positive for the country and for our industry,” said Tom Cove, president and chief executive officer of SFIA. “Frankly, they are not a surprise, as we know Americans are valuing and pursuing active lifestyles post-pandemic. Our industry’s role now is to fulfill that interest with positive sports and fitness experiences and quality, innovative, and inspiring products.”

Winter sports, team sports, racquet sports and water sports all grew by at least 9% last year. Winter sports led with 22% growth over 2022 and team sports measured 10.8% growth. Twenty of the 24 team sports showed increases, whereas only five showed increases the previous year. The number of team sports participants has now exceeded pre-pandemic levels from 2019.

For the third year in a row, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America, having grown 51.8% from 2022 to 2023 and 223.5% in three years. This contributed to the overall healthy participation trends in racquet sports, which also reflect a continued increase in participation numbers for tennis as well.

Trend analysis from the report also highlights the fitness category, where many health club-based activities such as treadmill, stair climbing, rowing machine and most class-based fitness activities such as barre, pilates and yoga, saw gains in participation in 2023.