UK gyms in numbers, 2026: members, prices and what they spend

Two big reports measure the UK gym market every year, and they rarely agree on the exact numbers. That is not a mistake: they count different things. This page sets out the latest figures from both, explains why they differ, adds the most useful findings on prices and on what members buy, and finishes with what we think it all means for gym operators. Where a number is our own sum, we say so.

The headline numbers

• 12.1 to 12.2 million gym and health club members in the UK, a record (Leisure DB, June 2026; ukactive, April 2026).
• 7,463 gyms counted by Leisure DB, or 5,842 clubs on ukactive's narrower definition.
• 17.6% to 18.0% of the population are members, up about one percentage point a year since 2022.
• 679 million visits to health and fitness clubs in 2025, up 10% on 2024, and nearly double the 383 million GP visits recorded that year (ukactive, April 2026).
• £7.29 billion market value (Leisure DB) or £6.5 billion total income (ukactive).
• 205 gym openings and 82 closures in 2026 by the time of Leisure DB's June report, against 172 openings and 119 closures in the whole of 2025.

Two reports, two methods

The ukactive UK Health & Fitness Market Report, produced with Sport England, 4GLOBAL and Grant Thornton, uses live data from operators and counts only sites with a gym open to the public by membership or pay-as-you-go. Leisure DB's State of the UK Fitness Industry Report (the company has since rebranded as Evolve) keeps its own register of sites and estimates market value from published membership prices. Leisure DB therefore finds around 1,600 more facilities, while ukactive's spend figure, based on actual income, comes out lower.

Comparison as published by Leisure Opportunities, 8 June 2026. ukactive's penetration is the share of over-16s; Leisure DB's is the share of the whole population. Whichever you use, quote the report and the year alongside the figure.

What people pay

• £48.45 a month: the average private-sector membership price in Leisure DB's 2025 report, across 4,727 private clubs (Leisure Opportunities, 5 June 2025).
• Over £25 a month: the average low-cost gym fee passed £25 for the first time in 2025, with 95% of low-cost clubs charging more than £20 (same source).
• £27.50: Leisure DB has raised the ceiling for what counts as a “low-cost” gym from £25 to £27.50 a month to keep pace with prices (Savills, March 2026; PwC Strategy&, August 2026).
• Cost is still the main barrier: in ukactive's 2025 consumer survey, cost was the most commonly cited reason non-members gave for not joining (ukactive, April 2025).

Low-cost gyms are driving the growth

PwC's Strategy& team analysed Leisure DB data for “high value low cost” (HVLC) chains, those charging under £27.50 a month at most of their clubs (PwC, August 2026):

Low-cost chains now run about 17% of private clubs but hold about 42% of private members. By our sum that is roughly 4,100 members per low-cost club against about 1,200 at other private clubs. PwC estimates room for 1,500 to 1,750 low-cost gyms in the UK, against 884 in January 2026, and says that if this is reached, overall membership could rise to around 23 to 24% of adults.

Who is joining

• Younger adults lead. Around 29% of Gen Z include the gym in their routine, against 25% of Millennials and 18% of Gen X (ukactive survey, 2025, cited by PwC, August 2026).
• Weight-loss drugs may add members. In a Strategy& survey of 2,315 UK adults in June 2026, people using GLP-1 medications reported a 22% net increase in gym use (PwC, August 2026).
• Provision is weighted to London and the South East, and membership is strongest among suburban, family-oriented and more affluent groups (Leisure DB, June 2026).
• Gyms are busier per site. Leisure DB reports members per gym rising steadily since the pandemic. By our sum, ukactive's 679 million visits across 5,842 clubs works out at about 116,000 visits per club in 2025, or over 300 a day.

What members buy beyond the membership

Protein has moved from the supplement shelf into everyday snacking, and gym-goers are the core of that market.

• Around 40% of UK consumers buy protein-led products, rising to about 70% of 18 to 24-year-olds (L.E.K. Consulting, October 2026, survey of 2,071 UK adults).
• Bars and ready-to-drink shakes beat powder. Among protein buyers, 89% eat protein bars and 74% drink ready-to-drink shakes, against 63% who use protein powder (L.E.K., October 2026).
• Half of UK adults now use sports nutrition products, and exercise is the main occasion for using them (Mintel, UK Attitudes towards Sports Nutrition 2026).
• Non-membership income matters. ukactive puts total sector income at £6.5 billion, of which £5.7 billion is membership income. By our subtraction, around £800 million came from other sources such as pay-as-you-go and other services.

Five things the numbers tell a gym operator

These are our own readings of the figures above, not statements from the reports.

1. Footfall is the asset. With over 300 visits a day at an average club, and far more at a busy low-cost site, even a small share of members buying a drink or a bar adds up across a year.
2. The fastest-growing gyms have the fewest staff. Low-cost clubs run lean, often 24 hours, with no café or shake bar. Members still want a recovery drink at 6am; if nothing is there, they buy it at the supermarket on the way home.
3. Young members drive both trends. The groups joining gyms fastest are the same groups most likely to buy protein products, so a gym's members are close to the most protein-hungry audience in the country.
4. Format matters. Ready-to-drink shakes and bars are what most protein buyers choose. They need no preparation and no staff, which suits an unstaffed gym floor.
5. Price-sensitive members still spend on small treats. Cost is the main barrier to joining, so holding fees down matters. Secondary spend lets a gym earn more per visit without raising the monthly price.

Our recommendation for gyms

If your gym has no café, or your café closes before the evening rush, the simplest way to capture post-workout spend is a cashless machine that sells what members already buy: ready-to-drink protein shakes, protein bars, water and sports drinks. A protein vending machine does that without staff, and an AI smart fridge suits gyms that want a wider range, including chilled snacks. Our page on vending machines for gyms sets out which machines suit which type of gym, and should your gym sell protein shakes? compares a machine with a staffed shake bar. For how installation, restocking and the monthly share of sales work, see how it works.

Running padel courts as well? Our UK padel in numbers round-up covers the fastest-growing sport on the same sites.

How to read gym statistics

• Name the report. ukactive and Leisure DB count clubs differently, so a 2026 figure from one and a 2025 figure from the other cannot be compared.
• Check the base for penetration. ukactive divides by over-16s; Leisure DB divides by the whole population.
• Market value is not revenue. Leisure DB estimates value from published prices; ukactive's figure is actual income.
• Low-cost thresholds move. The definition rose from £25 to £27.50 a month, so older low-cost counts are not like-for-like.

Using these figures

You are welcome to use this page when writing about the UK fitness market. Please cite the original report for each figure and, if our round-up or calculations helped, link to this page: “UK gyms in numbers, 2026”, Nexus Vend, https://nexusvend.com/blog/uk-gym-statistics.html. We will update it when the 2027 reports are published.

Sources

• ukactive, UK Health and Fitness Market Report 2026 reveals visits up 10% and 18% of the population now members, 9 April 2026
• Leisure Opportunities, As the 20th State of the Industry Report is released, LeisureDB rebrands to Evolve, 8 June 2026
• Leisure Opportunities, UK fitness industry metrics are at an all time high says LeisureDB, 5 June 2025
• ukactive, UK Health and Fitness Market Report 2025, 2 April 2025
• PwC Strategy&, High Value Low Cost gyms: is there further headroom for growth?, August 2026
• Savills, UK Leisure Market Spotlight, March 2026
• L.E.K. Consulting, Protein goes mainstream, 12 October 2026
• Mintel, UK Attitudes towards Sports Nutrition 2026