Americans hold more gym memberships than ever and still struggle to use them. This page collects what the primary sources actually say about the US fitness market, what a membership costs, how many people walk away, and how flexible access is growing alongside subscriptions.
80 statistics, drawn from 24 primary sources. Every figure shows the organisation that produced it, the year the data refers to and the year it was published. Each one has its own anchor link, so a single number can be cited directly.
The United States is the largest physical activity market in the world, and it is still adding locations faster than it is adding staff. These are the totals that frame everything else on this page.
US fitness facility members, 2023–2025
millions of members
The United States physical activity market was worth $406.9 billion, the largest in the world and ahead of China at $165.2 billion.
Source: Global Wellness Institute, Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2025 (fig. 5.3) · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-1)The United States physical activity market grew at an average of 6.2% a year between 2019 and 2024, rising from $301.0 billion to $406.9 billion.
Source: Global Wellness Institute, Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2025 (fig. 5.3) · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-2)The global physical activity market reached $1,143.9 billion, growing 5.8% over the previous year.
Source: Global Wellness Institute, Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2025 (fig. 5.2) · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-3)Physical activity accounted for 16.9% of all wellness economy spending worldwide, making it the third largest of the eleven sectors tracked.
Source: Global Wellness Institute, Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2025 (cap. 5) · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-4)The United States had 44,983 private fitness and recreational sports centers, the industry classified under NAICS code 713940.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-5)The United States had 39,272 private fitness and recreational sports centers before the pandemic, 5,711 fewer than in 2024.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages · data for 2019 · published 2020
Link to this statistic (#stat-6)Private fitness and recreational sports centers in the United States employed an annual average of 654,500 people.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-7)Private fitness and recreational sports centers in the United States employed an annual average of 664,318 people before the pandemic, more than they did in 2024 despite operating 5,711 fewer locations.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages · data for 2019 · published 2020
Link to this statistic (#stat-8)The average annual pay in United States private fitness and recreational sports centers was $21,949, a figure held down by the sector’s heavy reliance on part-time staff.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-9)There were 388,400 jobs for fitness trainers and instructors in the United States.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-10)Employment of fitness trainers and instructors in the United States is projected to grow 7% between 2025 and 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations, with about 68,000 openings a year.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-11)The median annual wage for fitness trainers and instructors in the United States was $47,160 in May 2025, and 15% of them were self-employed.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-12)81 million Americans belonged to a gym, studio or other fitness facility, an all-time high.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2026 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-13)Fitness facility membership reached 26.1% of the United States population aged six and older, an all-time high.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2026 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-14)Americans made an estimated 7 billion visits to fitness facilities, passing the previous peak set in 2019.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2026 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-15)United States fitness facility membership stood at an all-time high of 72.9 million two years earlier, so the market added more than eight million members in two years.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2024 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2023 · published 2024
Link to this statistic (#stat-16)Total visits to United States commercial gyms rose 3.5% year over year in the first half of 2025, while monthly visits per user rose 1.4%.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, FIT Tracker (with Placer.ai and Sports Marketing Surveys USA) · data for 2025 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-17)A membership is a recurring bet that you will show up. The figures below cover what that bet costs, how often it is abandoned, and the long-standing academic evidence that many people pay far more per workout than they think.
Monthly price of a US gym membership
US dollars per month
United States fitness facility membership grew 5.2% in a single year, from 77 million members in 2024 to 81 million in 2025.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2026 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-18)Average monthly fitness facility dues in the United States rose 9% to $65 per month.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2024 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2023 · published 2024
Link to this statistic (#stat-19)Planet Fitness told the SEC that the United States industry average gym price was $69 per month, against its own membership tiers starting at $15.
Source: Planet Fitness, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 · data for 2024 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-20)Almost 67% of United States fitness facility members paid on average less than $50 a month in dues, while facilities charging $100 or more grew their membership by 7.9%.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2024 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2023 · published 2024
Link to this statistic (#stat-21)The average United States household spent $272 a year on social, recreation and health club memberships.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys (TED, 5 January 2026) · data for 2024 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-22)The average United States household spent $225 a year on sports, recreation and exercise equipment, less than it spent on memberships.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys (TED, 5 January 2026) · data for 2024 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-23)During the pandemic the pattern was reversed: in 2021 the average United States household spent $282 on exercise equipment against $212 on memberships.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys (TED, 5 January 2026) · data for 2021 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-24)The median annual member retention rate across fitness operators was 66.4%, meaning about one member in three left within the year.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2025 Fitness Industry Benchmarking Report · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-25)Fitness operators reported median net membership growth of 5.5%, which means gross sign-ups had to greatly exceed net growth to offset churn.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2025 Fitness Industry Benchmarking Report · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-26)4.6% of United States fitness facility members did not visit their facility even once during the year, which the Health & Fitness Association reports as an all-time low.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2026 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-27)Health club members on a flat monthly contract of over $70 attended on average 4.3 times a month, according to the landmark academic study of gym attendance published in the American Economic Review.
Source: DellaVigna & Malmendier, "Paying Not to Go to the Gym", American Economic Review 96(3) · data for 2006 · published 2006
Link to this statistic (#stat-28)Those same monthly-contract members paid more than $17 per expected visit, when a ten-visit pass at the same clubs cost $10 a visit.
Source: DellaVigna & Malmendier, "Paying Not to Go to the Gym", American Economic Review 96(3) · data for 2006 · published 2006
Link to this statistic (#stat-29)On average those members gave up $600 in savings over the life of their membership by choosing a monthly contract over paying per visit.
Source: DellaVigna & Malmendier, "Paying Not to Go to the Gym", American Economic Review 96(3) · data for 2006 · published 2006
Link to this statistic (#stat-30)Members on an automatically renewing monthly contract were 17% more likely to still be enrolled after one year than members who had committed to a fixed annual term, evidence of how hard cancellation is in practice.
Source: DellaVigna & Malmendier, "Paying Not to Go to the Gym", American Economic Review 96(3) · data for 2006 · published 2006
Link to this statistic (#stat-31)The Federal Trade Commission received nearly 70 consumer complaints a day about recurring-payment and negative-option programmes, the category that covers automatically renewing gym memberships.
Source: US Federal Trade Commission, press release on the final Negative Option Rule · data for 2024 · published 2024
Link to this statistic (#stat-32)Three years earlier the same Federal Trade Commission complaint category was running at 42 complaints a day, so the volume rose by about two thirds between 2021 and 2024.
Source: US Federal Trade Commission, press release on the final Negative Option Rule · data for 2021 · published 2024
Link to this statistic (#stat-33)The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 44,983 fitness and recreational sports centers in the country; the largest chain runs 2,896 of them. A budget chain and a premium club sell access to the same activity at prices twenty times apart, and the independent operators who make up most of the sector sit somewhere in between. Public filings make the contrast measurable.
Year-on-year growth in total gym visits by segment, first half of 2025
percent change year over year
Figures from #stat-48
Planet Fitness, the largest gym chain in the United States by membership, operated 2,896 clubs at the end of the year.
Source: Planet Fitness, Inc., Q4 and full year 2025 results (SEC exhibit 99.1) · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-34)Planet Fitness had approximately 20.8 million members, having added about 1.1 million net new members during the year.
Source: Planet Fitness, Inc., Q4 and full year 2025 results (SEC exhibit 99.1) · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-35)2,604 of Planet Fitness’s 2,896 clubs were franchised rather than corporate-owned, so most of the chain is in practice run by independent operators paying royalties.
Source: Planet Fitness, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-36)Planet Fitness system-wide sales reached $5.3 billion while the listed company itself booked $1.3 billion of revenue, the gap being the money that stays with franchisees.
Source: Planet Fitness, Inc., Q4 and full year 2025 results (SEC exhibit 99.1) · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-37)Planet Fitness sold its Classic Card membership to new members from $15 a month.
Source: Planet Fitness, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-38)Planet Fitness sold its Black Card membership to new members at $24.99 a month.
Source: Planet Fitness, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-39)Life Time, at the premium end of the same market, operated just 189 centers and served 822,380 center memberships.
Source: Life Time Group Holdings, Inc., fourth quarter and full year 2025 results · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-40)Average annual revenue per Life Time center membership was $3,531, roughly twenty times what a Planet Fitness Classic Card costs over a year.
Source: Life Time Group Holdings, Inc., fourth quarter and full year 2025 results · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-41)27.4% of Life Time’s center revenue came from in-center spending rather than membership dues, showing how much of a premium club’s economics sits outside the subscription.
Source: Life Time Group Holdings, Inc., fourth quarter and full year 2025 results · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-42)Xponential Fitness, the largest franchisor of boutique studios in North America, had 2,606 open studios in the region.
Source: Xponential Fitness, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-43)The median EBITDA margin across surveyed fitness operators was 23.6%, alongside median revenue growth of 9.9%.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2025 Fitness Industry Benchmarking Report · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-44)Median operator revenue growth was 10.7% with a median EBITDA margin of 22.1%, across 244 operators running nearly 27,000 facilities in 33 countries.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2026 HFA Global Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-45)A budget gym in the United States averaged 193,000 visits per location in the first half of 2025, while a luxury facility averaged over 315,000.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, FIT Tracker (with Placer.ai and Sports Marketing Surveys USA) · data for 2025 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-46)Boutique studio users visited 2.5 times a month on average, against 5.2 monthly visits of 86 minutes each at luxury facilities.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, FIT Tracker (with Placer.ai and Sports Marketing Surveys USA) · data for 2025 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-47)Boutique and studio total visits grew only 0.8% year over year in the first half of 2025, against 3.8% for budget gyms and 3.7% for mid-priced ones.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, FIT Tracker (with Placer.ai and Sports Marketing Surveys USA) · data for 2025 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-48)16,986 of the 41,556 fitness and recreational sports centers counted by the US Census Bureau employed fewer than five people.
Source: US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (complete US file, NAICS 713940) · data for 2023 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-77)Centers with fewer than 20 employees — 16,986 with fewer than five, 7,544 with five to nine and 8,082 with 10 to 19 — made up 78% of all US fitness and recreational sports centers.
Source: US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (complete US file, NAICS 713940) · data for 2023 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-78)Only 965 US fitness and recreational sports centers employed between 100 and 249 people, and 185 employed 250 or more.
Source: US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (complete US file, NAICS 713940) · data for 2023 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-79)15,108 US fitness and recreational sports centers were run as sole proprietorships, more than a third of the total.
Source: US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (complete US file, NAICS 713940) · data for 2023 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-80)Members increasingly hold more than one form of access, book individual classes, and mix venues. At the same time most Americans still fall short of federal activity guidelines. Both things are true at once.
US adults meeting federal aerobic activity guidelines, by age
percent of adults
Figures from #stat-56
More than 25% of United States fitness facility members belonged to more than one facility at the same time.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2025 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-49)Over 75% of studio users in the United States held at least one additional membership elsewhere, so a studio pass is rarely somebody’s only form of access.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2025 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-50)Total customer penetration of United States fitness facilities, counting aggregator users, pay-as-you-go customers and insurance or employer programmes alongside members, was 31.0%, against 24.9% for memberships alone.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2025 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-51)Gen Z adults aged 18 to 24 had the highest fitness membership penetration of any age group in the United States, at 35.5%.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2026 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-52)Members aged 65 and over were the fastest growing cohort in United States fitness facilities, up 8.6% year over year.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2026 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-53)49.4% of United States fitness facility members met or exceeded federal aerobic activity guidelines, against 24.5% of people who did not use a facility.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2026 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-54)47.2% of United States adults met the federal guidelines for aerobic physical activity, with men at 52.3% and women at 42.4%.
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Data Brief 555 · data for 2024 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-55)Meeting aerobic guidelines fell steadily with age in the United States: 54.0% of adults aged 18 to 34, 49.8% of those 35 to 49, 44.6% of those 50 to 64 and 38.4% of those 65 and over.
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Data Brief 555 · data for 2024 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-56)Physical activity in the United States tracks income closely: 56.5% of adults at 400% of the federal poverty level or above met aerobic guidelines, against 35.4% of those below 100%.
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Data Brief 555 · data for 2024 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-57)27% of United States adults reported zero days of exercise of at least 30 minutes in the previous week, while 13% reported six or seven days.
Source: Gallup Panel, survey of 16,946 US adults over the first three quarters of 2025 · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-58)250 million Americans took part in at least one sport or fitness activity during the year, a new high.
Source: Sports & Fitness Industry Association, 2026 Topline Participation Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-59)Only 32% of Americans met the federal recommendation of 150 minutes of weekly activity, meaning 68% did not, even as overall participation hit a record.
Source: Sports & Fitness Industry Association, 2026 Topline Participation Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-60)Peloton reported average net monthly churn of 1.8% on its paid Connected Fitness subscriptions, which ended the fiscal year at 2.800 million.
Source: Peloton Interactive, Inc., Q4 FY2025 shareholder letter filed with the SEC · data for 2025 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-61)Reservations between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on the ClassPass marketplace, where users book individual classes rather than hold a gym membership, rose 38% globally as people fitted workouts into the middle of the working day.
Source: ClassPass, 2025 Look Back Report press release · data for 2025 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-62)Pilates was the most booked workout worldwide on ClassPass for the third year in a row, with reservations up 66% on the previous year.
Source: ClassPass, 2025 Look Back Report press release · data for 2025 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-63)54% of fitness consumers worldwide said they wanted new ways to get fit, and demand for challenge in workouts was up 47% over five years.
Source: Les Mills, 2026 Global Fitness Report (survey of over 10,000 fitness consumers) · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-64)25% of current gym members worldwide said they were too busy to train as much as they wanted, the most common barrier reported.
Source: Les Mills, 2026 Global Fitness Report (survey of over 10,000 fitness consumers) · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-65)45% of Gen Z and Millennial exercisers worldwide were actively seeking out group workouts.
Source: Les Mills, 2026 Global Fitness Report (survey of over 10,000 fitness consumers) · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-66)Americans take billions of trips a year, and a membership is tied to a building. This section sizes the travel market and the growing share of gym use that happens without a membership at all.
Americans took 2.40 billion domestic person-trips, above the 2.32 billion recorded in 2019.
Source: US Travel Association and Tourism Economics, Travel Forecast, Spring 2026 volume · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-67)Of those, 1.95 billion were domestic leisure trips, 105% of the 2019 level.
Source: US Travel Association and Tourism Economics, Travel Forecast, Spring 2026 volume · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-68)Domestic business trips in the United States numbered 441.3 million, still only 95% of the 2019 level.
Source: US Travel Association and Tourism Economics, Travel Forecast, Spring 2026 volume · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-69)Domestic travel spending in the United States totalled $1.185 trillion in inflation-adjusted 2025 dollars.
Source: US Travel Association and Tourism Economics, Travel Forecast, Spring 2026 volume · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-70)Americans took 198.9 million domestic trips by air, 105% of the 2019 level.
Source: US Travel Association and Tourism Economics, Travel Forecast, Spring 2026 volume · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-71)Wellness tourism expenditures in the United States reached $330.2 billion, the largest such market in the world.
Source: Global Wellness Institute, Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2025 (fig. 4.3) · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-72)The United States recorded 220.5 million wellness trips, more than any other destination market.
Source: Global Wellness Institute, Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2025 (fig. 4.3) · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-73)The global wellness tourism market was worth $894 billion, part of a $6.8 trillion global wellness economy.
Source: Global Wellness Institute, Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2025 (fig. 1.1) · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-74)Nearly 19 million people used United States fitness facilities without holding a membership, through day passes, guest privileges and other flexible options.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, FIT Tracker (with Placer.ai and Sports Marketing Surveys USA) · data for 2024 · published 2025
Link to this statistic (#stat-75)More than 100 million people used a United States fitness facility over the year once non-member visitors are counted alongside the 81 million members.
Source: Health & Fitness Association, 2026 US Health & Fitness Consumer Report · data for 2025 · published 2026
Link to this statistic (#stat-76)Every statistic on this page comes from the organisation that produced the number. That means government agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission, trade associations publishing their own survey research, peer-reviewed academic papers, and first-party data released by platforms about their own users.
Where a primary source could not be located, the statistic was left out rather than sourced to an article quoting someone else. Nothing here is estimated, modelled or rounded up by us. Every link points to the specific page or PDF carrying the number, never to the homepage of the source.
Most authoritative data for this sector is published a year or more after the period it covers. This edition is dated 2026 and the statistics mostly describe 2024 and 2025, with a handful of older figures kept where they remain the best available evidence. The year shown beside each statistic is the year the data refers to; the second year is when the source published it.
The statistics live in a single typed data file in this site's repository, so a correction changes the number in one place. Each statistic has a permanent anchor of the form #stat-12: journalists and researchers can link to an individual figure rather than to the page as a whole. FlexDropin does not publish proprietary booking data on this page.
24 distinct sources are cited on this page. Each links directly to the document carrying the data.
FlexDropin is an app for booking single gym and sports classes without a subscription. We publish this page because the data behind drop-in fitness is scattered across reports that are hard to reach. For interviews, questions or corrections, the press kit has our contact details.
