Pickleball statistics in the UK have a habit of being quoted, rounded, re-quoted and eventually attributed to “industry estimates”. This page does the opposite. Every external figure below links to where it was published and when, every chart can be checked against its data table, and the numbers we gathered ourselves come from 678 UK venues we have verified one by one. Where no reliable figure exists, we say so rather than inventing one.
Pickleball in the UK · Data
UK pickleball statistics and data (2026)
Updated 12 October 2026 · Venue data recalculates on every update · Every external figure links to its source
The headline numbers
- Pickleball England members (June 2026)
- 19,000+
- Players in England (Active Lives estimate)
- 74,800
- Venues in Pickleball England’s network
- 1,350
- English Open 2026 players
- 3,500+
- Typical session price (median)
- £6
- Venues verified by Pickleball Zone
- 678
Sources: Pickleball England via Pickleball 52 and DUPR (June 2026); The APP (English Open 2026); Pickleball Zone directory (prices and venue count).
How many people play pickleball in the UK?
The honest answer is that it depends which ruler you use, and the rulers differ by a factor of four. Here's every credible measurement and exactly what each one counts:
| Measure | Figure | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adults in England playing at least twice a month (60+ minutes each) | 20,000 | Nov 2022 to Nov 2023 | Sport England Active Lives |
| Adults in England who played at least once in the year | 27,300 | Year to Nov 2023 | Sport England Active Lives |
| Pickleball players in England (Active Lives estimate) | 74,800 | November 2025 | Quoted by Pickleball England |
| Players in England, Pickleball England’s own estimate | “Closer to 80,000” | June 2026 | Pickleball England |
| Estimated active players, England | 8,000 → 15,000 | 2022 → 2023 | Pickleball England |
The jump from 20,000 regular players in 2023 to an estimated 74,800 players by late 2025 is the clearest sign of growth in the whole dataset, though the two figures don't use identical definitions, so treat the precise multiple with caution. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland aren't covered by Active Lives, and their governing bodies don't publish comparable counts, so any “UK” total you see elsewhere is an extrapolation.
Pickleball England: members and venues
Membership of the governing body is the most reliable growth signal because it's a count, not a survey. It passed 19,000 in June 2026, from 6,008 at the end of 2023: more than three times bigger in two and a half years. Pickleball England hasn't published a full yearly series, so we've charted only the dated milestones it has announced rather than joining the dots with guesses.
Source: Pickleball England via Pickleball 52 (Jan 2024, Jun 2026) and Survey Solutions (2026) · Chart: Pickleball Zone
Show the data
| Point in time | Members | Source |
|---|---|---|
| End of 2023 | 6,008 | Pickleball 52, "Pickleball England figures show remarkable growth of the game" |
| Early 2026 | 16,000+ | Survey Solutions, "The padel and pickleball surge in the UK" |
| June 2026 | 19,000+ | Pickleball 52, "Pickleball England announce new membership milestone" |
Source: Pickleball England via Pickleball 52 (2022–2023) and DUPR (June 2026) · Chart: Pickleball Zone
Show the data
| Point in time | Venues | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 284 | Pickleball 52, "Pickleball England figures show remarkable growth of the game" |
| 2023 | 449 | Pickleball 52, "Pickleball England figures show remarkable growth of the game" |
| June 2026 | 1,350 | DUPR, official rating partner of the 2026 English Open (Pickleball England figures) |
Venues grew from 284 in 2022 to 1,350 by June 2026, almost all of them existing sports halls adding taped lines and portable nets, which is why venue growth can outpace the building of new courts. The network also includes 925 clubs.
Tournaments: the English Open
If you want a single chart that explains UK pickleball, it's this one. The English Open has grown from 305 players in 2019 to 2,350 in 2025, roughly 68% a year since 2022, before moving to the NEC in Birmingham for 2026, where it became the largest indoor pickleball event ever held, with more than 3,500 players from 56 countries playing 7,987 matches.
Source: Pickleball England, 2026 English OPEN event page (historical table) · Chart: Pickleball Zone
Show the data
| Year | Players | Event registrations |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 305 | 694 |
| 2020 | 732 | 1,341 |
| 2021 | Not listed | Not listed |
| 2022 | 492 | 943 |
| 2023 | 1,059 | 1,999 |
| 2024 | 1,976 | 3,655 |
| 2025 | 2,350 | 4,321 |
Where the UK plays
Every verified venue in the Pickleball Zone directory, mapped. Leisure centres dominate: UK pickleball is overwhelmingly a sports-hall game, played on badminton courts with portable nets, which is a large part of why it's spread so quickly.
Loading map…
Source: Pickleball Zone directory, 678 verified venues, October 2026 · Chart: Pickleball Zone
Show the data
| Venue type | Venues |
|---|---|
| Leisure centres | 396 |
| Tennis and pickleball clubs | 153 |
| Community halls and schools | 98 |
| Dedicated pickleball or racket centres | 19 |
| Council parks | 12 |
When the UK plays
We extracted every published session start time from the venues we've verified: 307 sessions in all. The busiest slot is Wednesday evening, and weekday daytime sessions (147) outnumber weekday evenings (114), reflecting how many players are retired or work flexibly. Only 46 of 307 published sessions fall at the weekend, which is the single biggest opportunity for venues looking to grow.
Source: Pickleball Zone directory, 678 verified venues, October 2026 · Chart: Pickleball Zone
Show the data
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morning | 11 | 27 | 16 | 18 | 6 | 14 | 15 |
| Afternoon | 15 | 14 | 8 | 17 | 15 | 4 | 8 |
| Evening | 21 | 23 | 32 | 24 | 14 | 1 | 4 |
What it costs
The median per-person session in the UK costs £6, based on 120 published session prices. Whole-court hire has a median of £12.75 per court, which a doubles four splits to around £3.19 each, often with paddles thrown in.
Source: Pickleball Zone directory, 678 verified venues, October 2026 · Chart: Pickleball Zone
Show the data
| Price band | Sessions |
|---|---|
| Under £2 | 0 |
| £2–£3.99 | 21 |
| £4–£5.99 | 32 |
| £6–£7.99 | 31 |
| £8–£9.99 | 19 |
| £10–£11.99 | 6 |
| £12 and over | 11 |
Source: Pickleball Zone directory, 678 verified venues, October 2026 · Chart: Pickleball Zone
Show the data
| City | Median session price | Prices counted |
|---|---|---|
| Bristol | £2.50 | 4 |
| Dundee | £4.70 | 7 |
| Cambridge | £5.50 | 2 |
| Nottingham | £5.75 | 6 |
| Aberdeen | £6 | 6 |
| Belfast | £6.45 | 14 |
| Manchester | £6.50 | 2 |
| Bournemouth & Poole | £7.50 | 2 |
| Liverpool | £8 | 4 |
| London | £10.75 | 8 |
| Leeds | £12.50 | 4 |
City-by-city prices with every venue are in the UK pickleball price index.
What venues offer
Most UK venues make starting easy. Of the 150 venues we have profiled in full, nearly half provide or hire out paddles, and two in five run sessions specifically for beginners. Permanent pickleball lines are rarer, because most courts are shared with badminton.
Source: Pickleball Zone directory, 678 verified venues, October 2026 · Chart: Pickleball Zone
Show the data
| Feature | Venues | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Indoor courts | 134 | 89% |
| Paddles provided or for hire | 70 | 47% |
| Beginner-friendly sessions | 60 | 40% |
| Permanent pickleball lines | 23 | 15% |
| Coaching available | 21 | 14% |
| Outdoor courts | 18 | 12% |
| Free sessions or bookings | 3 | 2% |
The UK compared with the USA
The USA is pickleball's home, and its numbers show how far the sport can grow. The two countries measure participation differently, so read the “measure” column before drawing conclusions; we've deliberately not put them on one chart because the scales differ by a factor of 300.
| Measure | Figure | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA: people who played at least once | 24.3 million | 2025 | SFIA |
| USA: people who played at least once | 4.2 million | 2020 | SFIA |
| England: pickleball players (Active Lives estimate) | 74,800 | Nov 2025 | Pickleball England |
| England: venues offering pickleball | 1,350 | June 2026 | Pickleball England |
In the USA, participation grew from about 4.2 million in 2020 to 24.3 million in 2025. The UK is earlier on the same curve, and because pickleball fits on any badminton court, it can spread through existing sports halls far faster than sports that need purpose-built courts.
What the numbers suggest
- Growth is real and sustained. Membership, venues, survey participation and tournament entries all point the same way across three independent sources.
- Weekends are the gap. Only 46 of 307 published sessions fall on a Saturday or Sunday, so the next wave of players, working-age adults and families, needs more weekend provision.
- Dedicated venues are coming. Most play still happens in shared halls, but purpose-built centres with permanent acrylic courts are now opening in several cities.
- It's still cheap to start. A typical session costs £6, and nearly half of the venues we have profiled in full provide or hire out paddles, so a first game often needs nothing but trainers.
We don't publish projections for player numbers: with no consistent UK-wide series, any forecast would be a guess presented as data.
Methodology and sources
External figures are reproduced exactly as published, with the period and definition each one uses. Where a figure is reported second-hand, we name both the original body and the publication quoting it. We exclude unsourced estimates, including several widely circulated “UK player” totals that cite no original source.
Directory figures come from the Pickleball Zone directory: 678 UK venues as of 12 October 2026, each verified against the operator's or club's own published information under our editorial policy. Session times are taken from published timetables (307 sessions at 165 venues). Prices separate per-person sessions from whole-court hire. For 528 venues we hold sessions, prices and location from the club's or operator's own pages but have not yet profiled facilities such as paddle hire, so feature shares use the 150 venues profiled in full. The directory covers a growing share of the UK's estimated 1,350 venues, and leisure-centre chains publish more detail than small clubs, so directory figures describe the venues we've verified rather than every venue in the country.
Sources
- Pickleball England, 2026 English OPEN event page (historical table) (2026)
- Pickleball England, 2025 English OPEN recap (2025)
- The APP, English Open 2026 lookback (August 2026)
- Pickleball 52, "Pickleball England figures show remarkable growth of the game" (23 January 2024)
- Pickleball 52, "Pickleball England announce new membership milestone" (16 June 2026)
- DUPR, official rating partner of the 2026 English Open (Pickleball England figures) (June 2026)
- Survey Solutions, "The padel and pickleball surge in the UK" (2026)
- Pickleball 52, "Sport England releases further pickleball participation stats" (Active Lives) (11 June 2024)
- SFIA, U.S. pickleball participation statistics (2026)
Changelog
- 12 October 2026: national venue sweep added clubs, operators and council leisure centres across all four nations, with 678 verified venues.
- 12 October 2026: first published, with 150 verified venues.
Use this data
Everything here is free to use with a link back to this page. Every chart above has an embed code and a PNG download, and the full datasets are available as CSV:
Statistics CSV Verified venues CSV
Cite this page:
Pickleball Zone (2026). UK Pickleball Statistics & Data (2026). Available at: https://pickleballzone.co.uk/blog/uk-pickleball-statistics/ (accessed: [date]).
Journalists: for anything not covered here, get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
How many people play pickleball in the UK?
Sport England’s Active Lives survey estimated 74,800 pickleball players in England as of November 2025, quoted by Pickleball England, which believes the figure is now closer to 80,000. There is no single official UK-wide count; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are measured separately.
How many members does Pickleball England have?
Over 19,000 as of June 2026, according to Pickleball England. That compares with 6,008 at the end of 2023.
How many pickleball venues are there in the UK?
Pickleball England counted 1,350 venues and 925 clubs in its network in June 2026, up from 284 venues in 2022. Pickleball Zone has verified sessions and prices at 678 venues so far.
How much does pickleball cost in the UK?
The median per-person session price across published UK sessions is £6. Whole-court hire has a median of £12.75 per court, which is shared between up to four players.
Is pickleball the fastest-growing sport in the UK?
It is among the fastest-growing by its own governing body’s numbers: Pickleball England membership roughly tripled between the end of 2023 and June 2026, and English Open entries grew by about 68% a year between 2022 and 2025.
Can I use these statistics and charts?
Yes. Quote any figure or embed any chart with a link back to this page. The underlying data is free to download as CSV.