Pickleball has been included in Sport England’s Active Lives survey figures for the first time – and the new 2022-23 report says there is a core base of 20,000 players in the country.
Sport England – the non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – produces two separate reports every few years (one for adults and another for children and young people) to measure the nation’s activity levels.
The report conducted by Ipsos is split into many different demographics, with participation figures included for many different sports and physical activities.
Each individual within each sport’s figure in the Active Lives survey is defined as being over the age of 16 and who says they have participated ‘at least twice in the sport in the past month when they were surveyed.’ These two playing sessions need to have reached a minimum threshold of 60 minutes.
Sport England’s 20,000 figure for pickleball during the November 2022 to November 2023 period is in line with recent estimates issued by the sport’s de facto governing body Pickleball England. At their February 2024 AGM they recorded a membership at the end of 2023 of 6,008 (which is now over 8,000). They estimated 15,000 players and the membership advised they thought this was under-reported. They are now estimating 25,000 and think that the Sport England figure validates this.
The survey results come out at a time when Sport England is considering whether pickleball should be considered as an officially recognised sport. The inclusion of pickleball in its own figures feels significant in this context.
Incidentally, the Sport England Active Lives survey did not actually include pickleball as an option for respondents to select under ‘racket sports.’ Instead, people had to select ‘Other’ and manually write ‘pickleball’ in order for their participation to register. The same was true for padel, which is also reported for the first time and recorded a national figure of 23,000.
Particularly pleasing for pickleball was the reported gender demographic of a 57:43 split of female:male participation – making pickleball the only racket sport in which the survey reports more female players than male.
Figures from the recent Pickleball England AGM suggested a 48:52 female:male ratio. Regardless of which is correct, both surveys tell a hugely positive story about the equality and accessibility of pickleball for female players.
“Seeing pickleball on the survey results is an exciting moment. It feels like pickleball has arrived,” Pickleball England Chair Karen Mitchell told us.
“I am particularly excited to see the high proportion of women who responded. That’s something we really want to continue to focus on because we see it as a major positive for the sport.”
