Leisure DB’s State of the UK Swimming Industry Report 2024, published on 1 August, shows that demand for swimming remains high, but there are fewer pools to meet that demand.
The UK’s swimming pool stock continues to shrink, with the number of public and private facilities with pools decreasing by 2% in the 12 months to 31 March 2024. In total, there were 4,272 swimming pools on 31 March 2024 – compared to 4,351 the year before.
Leisure DB’s State of the UK Fitness Industry Report 2024 shows that the UK health and fitness industry is performing strongly in the aftermath of the pandemic. SportsNation looks at some of the highlights of the report, which this year has been made free to download for the very first time.
We are pleased to share the progress we have made since the relaunch of DoingOurBit last month to the NHS and Social Care providers.
We have already engaged with over 30 NHS Trusts including Manchester University NHS Foundation, Cardiff and Vale University Hospital and University Hospital Bristol and Weston, means we are well on our way to our target of 200 by Summer this year.
Do you truly understand which types of consumer your fitness facility appeals to, and how well you’ve penetrated the relevant audiences in a realistic catchment area? Step forward Leisure DB’s member analysis reports...
Understanding who your members are and where they live – i.e. how far they’re travelling to reach your site – is a vital first step in achieving maximum bang for every marketing buck.
The State of the UK Swimming Industry Report 2023 isn’t just about data, says Leisure DB founder David Minton. It’s rich with interviews and insight.
Most people will be well aware of the perilous state of the UK’s swimming pool stock. If not, Google ‘swimming pool closures UK’ and you’ll be brought up to date with a rather depressing bang. But is it all bad news, or are there glimmers of hope and best practice from which we can all learn?
The language we speak influences the way we think – and the way people think about us. David Minton, founder of Leisure DB, offers his thoughts on how our sector must reinvent its language to better engage with consumers and government
Does the language we speak shape the way we think? This is a question often debated by linguists. My own perception, informed by regular visits to Japan, is that it absolutely does.
Behind every one of our latent demand calculations sits comparable data on 7,000 UK fitness sites, profiles of millions of members, 450+ Mosaic data variables and 20+ years of experience. It all comes together to provide highly accurate estimates. Here’s how it works.
More members and record market value, Leisure DB’s David Minton discusses this year’s State of the UK Fitness Industry Report.
The UK has slightly fewer gyms (0.9%) in 2023 than in 2022, but member numbers are up 3.9% and market value is the highest we’ve observed. These are some of the key findings from our State of the UK Fitness Industry Report 2023.
Through the EVOLVE movement, Leisure DB aims to catalyse conversation, collaboration and change across the UK’s physical activity sector. COO Heidi Blackburn speaks to Kate Cracknell.
What is EVOLVE?
EVOLVE is a movement for industry transformation that was conceived by Leisure DB and Pocket Rocket in 2021, with ActiveIQ, Willmott Dixon and Taylor Wessing also coming onboard as partners to help us launch it that same year.
We are super proud to announce that we have become a supporting partner of 'Doing Our Bit'!
You may already be aware of the fantastic preventative health movement Doing Our Bit that began during lockdown to offer all NHS and Social Care staff free, on-demand fitness & wellness sessions, provided by fully qualified PTs and instructors.
The Escape Your Limits podcast, invited our very own David Minton, Founder of Leisure DB, and leading specialist in the leisure sector, to offer key market intelligence and analysis across the fitness industry.
Number of gyms is down, members and revenues are up; Leisure DB releases the State of the UK Fitness Industry Report 2023
The UK has fewer gyms in 2023 than in 2022, but member numbers are up and market value has reached an all-time high.
In light of more people being authentic about their gender identity, how should the health and fitness sector respond?
Reports by David Minton, Founder of Leisure DB
Sociologists make a distinction between sex and gender. Sex is based on a ridged idea of biological traits that societies use to assign people into either male or female. Gender is more fluid and is determined by what an individual feels and does.
The Power of Data: How Fitness Business Owners Can Save Time and Money with Informed Decisions
The Benefits of Using Data to Guide Your Fitness Business Strategy
From Trends to Insights: How Data Can Help You Stay Ahead in the Fitness Industry
Making Data-Driven Decisions: The Key to Success in the Competitive Fitness Landscape
The Future of Fitness: Why Data is the Foundation for Growth and Innovation
David Minton shares his thoughts on how to tackle 2023
Let me start with two opportunities which excite me, could transform the sector in 2023 and help it double in size. These are opportunities which a growing number of operators and influencers within the industry are getting behind.
In my lifetime, America has had a number of ‘health of the nation’ scares. The AIDS epidemic in the 80s and 90s, more recently the crisis with opioid dependency and the obesity epidemic. The combination of the physical and mental impact of being overweight can be seen on sidewalks in every town and city across America.
In 2019 there were over 14.3 million Baby Boomers in the UK, making it the largest generational group. Boomers – people born between 1946-1964 in 2021 – are currently aged 57 to 75. Boomers don’t want to get old. I’m a boomer, I should know. That’s my first qualification to write this article.
I’ve commented many times on how trend data from the Leisure Database shows the industry to have been recession-proof during 1980/81 and 1990/91 and also the crash of 2008/09.
However, our reseach has found that the first global pandemic in our lifetime has dwarfed any recession. Results from our 2022 full audit of Direct Debit members of our entire database of 7,000-plus sites shows this part of the industry overall has already bounced back to somewhere between 2018 and 2019, but as always, the devil is in the detail.
That’s right – you heard it here first! Throughout January & February, we have our team of experienced researchers contacting all UK leisure venues seeking to validate & update the existing data already held.
We are unique as we’re the only company, worldwide, that audits the whole industry. We are in touch with around 7,000 sites annually at least once, confirming, collecting and updating the information.
Generations rarely have the opportunity to reset public opinion and effect behaviour change for good. Post pandemic two unequal movements have a lot in common and will be the focus of governments for some time.
The way we think about the future of the planet and our own health will see planetary health at the heart of personal health for years to come. There are four numbers we should consider, 50 billion tons and zero, for climate change, and 150 minutes and zero for personal health.
No matter how you spin it, 2021 will be a great year for cyclists: the year of hybrid, technology-enabled fitness.
My favourite example over the past few months: leave home on my Brompton bike, cycle via the park and cycle super-highways to H2 Victoria, walk up to the roof for an outdoor spinning class with workout data sent to my app. Then pick-up Brompton and cycle home, Apple Watch provides more data.
A mounting body of anecdotal evidence from around the world shows how the coronavirus has changed the ways we move. This should not come as a surprise as we are almost a full year into the pandemic changing our regular habits of daily movement. I used to do 10,000 steps just going to and from the office, my fitness regime included a personal trainer once a week and I would enjoy the occasional boxing, indoor cycling or HiiT class. Now, in lockdown 3.0, known as Tier 4, my average steps are down 37%, the PT has been on hold since March and most indoor classes have moved to a digital platform.
The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (2015) currently form the central focus of the global community’s primary aspirations for a better quality of human (and other) life. SDG 3 concerns ‘Good Health and Wellbeing’. Its nine targets understandably focus on broad components: child health, maternal health, disease prevention. It’s left to the World Health Organization to explore natural ways of attaining good health and wellbeing, beyond medical and technological means.
The current Covid pandemic has swiped the human species like few events before. In early September, we have 25 m. cases and are heading for 1 m. fatalities. It is an historic challenge to the international community of states. And it is an existential threat to the global community of peoples.
Overwhelmingly, our attention is focused on containment and eradication, through collective response – through both political action (lockdown; tracing) and medical (vaccine development).
This interview is from David Minton, Director of the Leisure Database Company who kindly agreed to contribute to the series back in December 2019 when 'Covid', 'Furlough' and 'Social Distancing' were alien and unknown words in our vocabulary.
David is a name that has been in my consciousness for as long as I can remember and when I undertook an MSc in Marketing I would often review some of the many articles that he had written on database marketing, social impacts and technology.
At the time of writing this article, 64% of fitness sites around the world were closed, according to global platform FitnData. An as-yet-unknown number of those will never reopen. Industry body UKActive has warned that a third of the country’s facilities – 2,800 of them – may collapse without government intervention.
Just a few weeks ago I was writing and talking about the ‘golden age’ of fitness. The prelapsarian innocence of fitness, when all sectors across the industry were growing.
Then two decades of growth disappeared in just two weeks when all fitness sites closed.
Trend data, built up over many years of auditing the industry, shows fitness to have been recession-proof, but the immediate impact from the coronavirus is far worse than any recession.
Now is the moment of all moments for the fitness community to outfox the lockdown with innovative ideas, since measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 closed down society as we know it.
2.6bn people, or roughly 30% of the world’s population, are currently living under some form of lock down due to Covid-19. According to the latest statistics this has resulted in 64% of the world’s fitness sites being closed either by decree or voluntary arrangement.
In the same way that there is no Planet B, there is also no second body or personal health system, so why are we not looking after both equally? Climate change has jumped onto every political and social agenda and so has coronavirus. So why hasn’t personal fitness?
FreeFlow, held on 5 September at London Aquatics Centre, provided a platform to explore the future of swimming and aquatics within the fitness and leisure sector. The event also had a strong emphasis on sustainability, technology, and inclusivity.
Co-hosted by Leisure DB, Hutchi, and Everyone Active, FreeFlow brought together the UK’s swimming and pool industry, showcasing discussions, presentations, and networking opportunities.