Contents
- Sports club membership statistics across EU countries
- Sports club membership statistics by age, gender, education, and finances
- Sports club membership statistics in Ireland: trends and club types
- Sports club membership statistics in Ireland: members by sport
- Sports club membership statistics in Japan: status, gender, and age
- Sports club membership statistics: Japanese kart club registrations
- Sports club membership statistics: Irish member tenure and benefits
- Sources
Sports club membership statistics across EU countries
Sports club membership looks different depending on what a survey counts. In the 2022 Special Eurobarometer, 28% of EU27 respondents said they belonged to a club where they participated in sport or recreational physical activity. A narrower table measure put membership in a “sport club” at 12%. These figures describe different response categories: the broader measure also includes other listed club types, such as health or fitness centres. The question allowed multiple answers, so categories should not be added together.
Country results show the same distinction. Sweden had the highest reported overall club membership in the cited comparison, at 51%, followed by the Netherlands at 50%. Denmark was split evenly, with 49% members and 49% non-members. Romania, Portugal, and Bulgaria each recorded 15% overall membership. These are survey responses about membership in any listed club where respondents took part in sport or recreational physical activity, not sport-club membership alone.
Sport-club membership varied separately. Ireland recorded 20%, tied with health or fitness centre membership as the country’s most common club type. Belgium and Luxembourg each reported 19% sport-club membership. The national figures therefore depend on whether the question is read as membership in any relevant club or specifically in a sport club.
Source: Special Eurobarometer 525: Sport and Physical Activity, pp. 39–40; EU27 fieldwork April 19–May 16, 2022. QB15 base: all respondents (N=26,578); multiple answers allowed.
Sports club membership statistics by age, gender, education, and finances
Across the EU27, the 2022 sport-club membership measure was higher among men than women: 16% versus 10%. The largest difference in the age breakdown was between respondents aged 15–24, at 24%, and those aged 55 and over, at 9%. Intermediate groups registered 15% for ages 25–39 and 11% for ages 40–54. This describes reported membership by age group; it does not establish why rates differ.
Education and financial circumstances also tracked with different reported rates. Among respondents who ended their education at age 15 or earlier, 5% belonged to a sport club, compared with 16% among those who ended education at age 20 or later. Respondents who said they almost never or never had difficulty paying bills had a 15% sport-club membership rate. These are subgroup comparisons from the same survey, not evidence that education or finances caused membership patterns.
Source: Special Eurobarometer 525: Sport and Physical Activity, pp. 40–41, QB15 demographic table; EU27 respondents, April–May 2022.
Sports club membership statistics in Ireland: trends and club types
Irish overall club membership declined from 36% in 2019 to 30% in 2021, then edged up to 31% in 2022. The 2022 report estimated that the last figure represented roughly 1.26 million people. Later results show a continued recovery: the Irish Sports Monitor’s 2024 summary chart reports 35% in 2023 and 36% in 2024. Across these reported points, the rate returned to its 2019 level by 2024, after the lower readings in 2021 and 2022.
These are overall club-membership rates, not sport-club-only rates. The category distinction matters when comparing them with the Eurobarometer’s 20% Irish sport-club figure. The Irish monitor also reported that gym membership fell from 14% in 2019 to 10% in 2021; that series covers gym membership, a particular type of club membership, and those two values do not extend the later overall-membership trend.
Sources: Irish Sports Monitor 2022, p. 27; Irish Sports Monitor 2024: Summary Research Report, p. 6. The 2024 report chart gives the 2017–2024 overall club-membership series.
Sports club membership statistics in Ireland: members by sport
Membership varies sharply by activity among people who participate in that activity. In 2022, 88% of Irish Gaelic-football participants belonged to a sports club. The equivalent figure for golfers was 76%, according to the report’s comparison of sports participation and club membership. These percentages use participants in each sport as their denominator, rather than the Irish population as a whole.
For other activities, the connection to a dedicated club was less common. Among Irish cyclists, 6% belonged to a cycling club; among runners, 13% belonged to a running club. Swimming-club membership among swimmers was 10%, and 4% of people who took part in weights belonged to a weights club. These figures concern membership in the club associated with each activity, so they should not be read as the share of all participants who belong to any sports club.
Gym membership offers another comparison: 38% of people engaging in personal exercise were gym members, as were 24% of those lifting weights. The denominators overlap conceptually with activity participation, but these are distinct participant groups and membership measures. The results show that activity alone does not imply club membership; organized club affiliation is much more prevalent in some sports than in others.
Source: Irish Sports Monitor 2022, p. 28, Figure 2.3 narrative and accompanying gym-membership discussion; Ireland, 2022.
Sports club membership statistics in Japan: status, gender, and age
In the 2022 SSF National Sports-Life Survey, 16.6% of Japanese adults were current sports-club members. Another 24.0% said they had formerly been members, while 59.4% had never joined a sports club. The categories distinguish present membership from past experience; “former member” is not a current club-membership rate.
Current membership was similar for men and women: 16.9% among men and 16.2% among women. The never-joined share was 57.5% for men and 61.4% for women. In this survey, then, the gender gap in current membership was small compared with the majority share of adults who had never joined.
Age-group rates followed a less linear pattern than a simple decline with age. Current membership stood at 29.3% among 18–19-year-olds, though that subgroup contained 75 respondents. It was 15.3% for ages 20–29 and 9.9% for ages 30–39, then rose to 13.4% for ages 40–49, 15.4% for ages 50–59, 19.1% for ages 60–69, and 23.8% among those aged 70 and over. The older-age figures indicate higher reported current membership in those groups than among people in their thirties; they do not show individual membership histories over time.
Source: The 2022 SSF National Sports-Life Survey Executive Summary, p. 6, membership tables by gender and age. The survey covered people aged 18 and over; the total membership table has n=2,986, from a stated sample of 3,000. Age-group sample sizes include n=75 for ages 18–19, n=374 for 20–29, n=437 for 30–39, n=582 for 40–49, n=529 for 50–59, n=489 for 60–69, and n=514 for 70 and over.
Sports club membership statistics: Japanese kart club registrations
Karting has a distinct administrative measure: registered organizations rather than individual members. Japan’s JAF table lists 119 registered kart clubs and organizations in 2022, 109 in 2023, and 103 in 2024, the latest year shown. The 2016 total was 120. The displayed count was therefore close to its 2016 level in 2022, followed by lower totals in the next two years.
These numbers count JAF-registered clubs and organizations. They do not report how many people belonged to those organizations, how many racers were active, or how membership was distributed among clubs. They are useful as an organizational registration series, but cannot be substituted for a headcount of kart-club members.
Source: JAF Motorsport Statistics: Kart, registered kart clubs/organizations table, annual totals.
Sports club membership statistics: Irish member tenure and benefits
The Irish Sports Monitor’s 2024 special module asked club members about the first club they identified. Almost one in five (19%) said they had belonged to that club since childhood. The share was 26% among men and 10% among women. This is a measure of tenure in an identified club among members, not the proportion of all men or women who joined clubs as children.
Members also described what they valued. In the same module, 37% named a more social aspect to the sport as a main membership benefit, 28% cited access to facilities, and 22% cited health and exercise. Separately, 89% said their membership fees were good value for money. The value-for-money result reflects members’ views about their own identified club; it is not a measure of fees or affordability across all Irish clubs.
Source: Irish Sports Monitor 2024: Summary Research Report, p. 18, Special Module on Club Membership; Irish club members in 2024, responding about the first club they identified.