Report: Pickleball Play Increasing

The Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) recently released some new statistics on pickleball. 

Not surprisingly, even more people are playing the game. 

How Many People Play Pickleball?

According to the SFIA, pickleball participation has increased by more than 158% in the past three years with nearly 9 million people participating in 2022. The SFIA said the average age of people participating is 35 years old and that the 25 to 34-year-old demographic has the most participants. 

Pickleball has been getting progressively younger, with ages 6-17 making up 21.2% of the nearly 5 million pickleball players in 2021. The SFIA noted that, of all age groups from 2020 to 2021, players under 24 had the fastest growth rate at 21%. The second fastest growing demographic is tied between 18-24 year-olds and those 65 and older. 

SFIA also reported that pickleball participation grew in every region in the United States in 2022 with the South Atlantic region being the most popular for pickleball with nearly 2 million players. The Mountain region, which includes California and Arizona, has the highest number of dedicated courts per 1,000 players at 4.6. 

According to its recent press release on pickleball industry statistics, SFIA is the leading global trade association of manufacturers, retailers, and marketers in the sports products and fitness industry. To purchase the full report on pickleball, go to SFIA.org.

A number of other entities have also covered pickleball’s growth.

Sportico wrote “Racquet sports are hot, with participation rising at least 20% among every generation since 2019. Pickleball’s 158.6% increase is so large that including the sport in the scatter plot visualization below renders the rest of the chart unreadable” [see Sportico scatter plot on “Exercise Activity Participation Change Since 2019”]

USA Pickleball reported a +15.6% growth in the number of pickleball courts nationwide, going from 38,140 courts in 2021 to 44,094 courts in 2022.

Life Time is a brand that has fully embraced pickleball and has been adding pickleball courts to its clubs in 2022 at the rate of five new permanent courts a week.

Wowsa.

With 400 courts across the country at its locations, Life Time projects that it will offer more than 600-700 courts by the end of 2023. 

There’s one conclusion we can safely take out of all this. With the current and projected growth metrics for pickleball, demand isn’t slowing down.