Pickleball Facility Statistics 2026

Every number here was opened and checked in October 2026 for our pickleball and padel club research. Each one has its source and date. Where a number is ours, from our survey of 27 clubs, we say so.

Key stats

How many people play pickleball in 2026?

SFIA counted 24.3 million US pickleball players in 2025, up from 4.2 million in 2020 and 22.8% more than in 2024. Only 7.5 million were core players, meaning 8 or more times a year. In Canada, Pickleball Canada's 2026 survey counts 1.8 million players, up from 1.54 million a year earlier.

Source: SFIA participation series, as reported by The Dink (Aug 2025), and SFIA's 2026 release.

Growth is slowing, but it isn't reversing. The 2025 jump still added millions of players.

Canada by province, from the same Pickleball Canada survey: Ontario has about 702,000 players, Quebec about 432,000 and BC about 306,000. Pickleball Canada had 93,888 paid members in 2025.

What it means for your club: there are plenty of players. The job is turning them into regulars.

Who plays pickleball?

Mostly casual players. Of SFIA's 24.3 million US players in 2025, about 16.8 million played 1 to 7 times and 7.5 million played 8 or more. That's roughly two in three players who are casual (our calculation from SFIA). Women are 42.9% of US players, up from 38.6% in 2020.

SFIA puts the drop in days played down to a wave of newer core players, not to people quitting.

I think pickleball is more inclusive than golf. More women play in pickleball tournaments than in golf ones. The numbers lean the same way: 42.9% of US pickleball players are women (SFIA), while NGF puts women at about 28% of on-course golfers. They're different surveys, so treat that as a rough comparison.

What it means for your club: your biggest audience plays a few times a year. Build programs for them, not just for your 4.5s.

How many pickleball courts and facilities are there?

USA Pickleball and Pickleheads counted 68,458 known US courts at the start of 2025, including 18,455 added in 2024. Dedicated pickleball facilities grew 55% in a year, according to SFIA and Pickleheads. Even so, SFIA says demand still outstrips supply, with $855 million of court construction needed over the next 5 to 7 years.

Most courts are outdoor. In the same report, 67% of courts were outdoor, and outdoor courts grew faster (28%) than indoor ones (14%). So a good indoor club in a cold market is still scarce.

What it means for your club: there's room for more clubs, but new clubs nearby can copy your courts. Your programs and community are harder to copy.

What do pickleball club memberships cost?

At the US pickleball clubs we surveyed, the median core monthly membership is $149 (n=8, range $59 to $219.99). Canadian clubs sit at about C$140 a month (n=8). Most clubs separate tiers by booking window: the median top tier books 14 days ahead, while free or non-member windows are mostly 5 to 7 days.

One example of a ladder: The Picklr's Seattle (Fremont) location runs from a $30, 15-day trial to a $369 family plan. Its tiers are priced mainly on booking window, 14 days at the top versus 7 below.

What it means for your club: price on access, not on hours. A longer booking window is the cheapest perk you can sell.

Why do pickleball players play less or stop?

Crowded courts and not finding a good match. In SFIA and DUPR's 2025 survey of 1,102 avid DUPR players, 44.4% said courts are overcrowded, 39.2% struggle to find opponents at their level and 31.9% have scheduling conflicts. 48% want to play more often. About 3.4 million players stopped playing in 2023.

Source: SFIA/DUPR 2025 Pickleball Market Playbook, n=1,102 avid DUPR players.

The churn number needs care. About 3.4 million players stopped playing in 2023, according to SFIA data as reported by The Kitchen. That's a count, not a rate, and there's no published figure for later years.

Avid players do spend money once they're in. Among those reporting each cost, the average was $913 a year on facility fees, $688 on lessons, $517 on tournaments and $402 on league fees (SFIA/DUPR). And 60% of avid players are in a league (Sports Destination Management, reporting the same study).

What it means for your club: leveled play and fair booking rules aren't nice extras. They're your retention plan.

When do pickleball players join and leave a club?

In cold markets, players join in fall and January and drift away in summer. Gym data is the best public guide: US gym visits jumped about 21% from December 2024 to January 2025, per Placer.ai. Gymdesk, a gym software vendor, found about two-thirds of trial conversions happen within 14 days.

These are gym numbers, not pickleball numbers. Gym research suggests the same thing every club owner sees: people who play at a fixed time with friends stay.

What it means for your club: follow up every trial inside two weeks, put new members in a weekly league or ladder, and have a summer offer ready before May.

How big is padel in North America?

Small, but growing fast. SFIA measured padel for the first time in 2025 and found about 1.07 million US players, about 238,000 of them playing 8 or more times. The US passed 1,000 padel courts in April 2026, according to the USPA. Where one club prices both sports, padel costs about 1.3 to 2 times as much.

What it means for your club: if you add padel, you're selling a premium sport to people who've mostly never played. Intro sessions come first.

What do the numbers mean for a club owner?

The market is big, mostly casual and still growing. Players want more court time and better matches, and they pay for leagues, lessons and facilities. Most clubs sell memberships priced on booking access. So the plan is to turn casual players into members, then keep them with leveled, scheduled play.

If I ran a 6 to 12 court club, here's what I'd take from this page:

1. Build for the casual majority. Two in three players are casual.
2. Tier on booking window. 17 of 22 clubs that publish windows already do.
3. Fix matching before you buy ads. It's a top barrier for avid players.
4. Get new members into a league in month one. Routine is what keeps people.
5. Plan around the cold. Sell fall and January hard, and have a summer offer.

The full plan is in our pickleball club marketing guide. For the complete pricing survey, the calendar and seven plays, get the free Full Courts playbook.

How we compiled these numbers

Every figure was opened at its source on 8 October 2026 for our Full Courts playbook research, then checked a second time. Participation, court and barrier figures come from SFIA, USA Pickleball, Pickleheads, Pickleball Canada, the USPA and the Health & Fitness Association. Vendor figures (Placer.ai, Gymdesk) are labelled as vendor data.

Pricing figures come from our own survey of 27 pickleball and padel clubs (15 US, 12 Canada). We read each club's own website or booking page on 8 October 2026. Prices are as published: USD for US clubs and CAD for Canadian ones, before tax. We didn't use any "average membership cost" articles. Where a sample is small, we show n.