Gym Owner Statistics: The State of Gyms, Member Trends, and Usage Data

Are gyms growing or shrinking?

The Census Bureau lists the population in the United States as 340.1 million. According to Statista, gym memberships at fitness centers continue to grow steadily over time, hitting a high of 68.9 million in 2022.

There’s no stopping this growth as gyms and fitness studios continue to bounce back from Covid-19!

Source: Statista.com

This is great news for gym owners! 

This means 20.2% of our population has a gym membership. More than ever, people are focused on their health and well-being. Here’s the best part—79.8% of the population do not have a gym membership. There’s a lot of room for growth! 

Today, we’ll take a look at gym owner statistics. 

We’ll give you a comprehensive overview, showing you how other gym owners are doing. Use these stats to make changes and improve your gym operations.

Gym Owner Statistics: What keeps gym owners up at night?

The vast majority of gym owners struggle with the same issues. Here’s a brief look at some of the biggest areas of concern for gym owners.

• 55.5% of gym owners feel their biggest concern is attracting new members
• 16.8% worry about retaining their members
• 13.4% struggle with hiring and retaining staff
• 10.9% aren’t sure about how to navigate economic changes (e.g., recessions, culture shifts, etc.)

These are significant challenges when we take a look at the long-term effects. According to the IHRSA: 

• Most gyms lose about 50% of all new members within the first 6 months
• Close to 14% of female gym-goers quit their membership after a year
• About 8% of male gym-goers quit their membership after a year
• Just two interactions per mo. between staff and members can reduce cancellations by as much as 33%.

What does this tell us about the path to solving these challenges? 

1. Great gym marketing is key. Fitness studios should always be focused on attracting new members. If a 50% churn rate is the national average, you can’t afford to stop marketing. 
2. Hire the right people. Use hiring methodologies like Topgrading to attract A-player talent to your gym. These A-players are a necessary part of building and maintaining a successful gym. 
3. Build staff and member relationships. Positive staff interactions with members will reduce membership churn rates. You’ll find it’s easier to attract and keep more members. 
4. Help members build habits. If you’ve established strong relationships with your members, you have the connection you need to help them build great habits. Using strong values—competency, validation, encouragement, support, and cheerleading, you can help members weather the storms of training and make it past the six-month mark. 
5. Improve the cycle. Keep doing steps 1-4! Then, look for ways to improve your performance in each step. Continually test and improve your marketing. Keep A-players happy so they can give you their best work. Build healthy relationships with your members.        

Why does this matter? 

The vast majority of gym owners want to build a stable gym and grow quickly (who doesn’t). 

• 62.5% plan to grow as much as possible in the foreseeable future
• 14.2% want to open multiple locations
• 10.8% want to hire competent managers and take on a smaller role
• 6.7% would like to sell (exit) the business to new owners 

A successful outcome begins with the four steps I’ve laid out above. There’s obviously more involved, but this is a high-level overview that gives you a clear plan of action for your gym.

This sounds like a lot of work. 

You’re right, it absolutely is a lot of work. That’s why it’s so important to bring everything back to your “why.” Why did you decide to open a gym?

Why Did Gym Owners Open Their Gyms?

Opening a gym comes with risks. The startup costs are high, and thanks to the boom we’re experiencing, there’s intense competition for members and staff. The risk of financial failure is high. Losing 50% of your new customers seems to be a standard thing.

So why did you take the risk? When we take a look at the data, we see that the biggest motivations for opening a gym are: 

1. Teaching students (41%): This includes guiding and shepherding students through a set curriculum and tracking their ranks and progress. If you’re using a gym management tool like Gymdesk, you can track all of this automatically, using student performance data as a touchpoint for relationship building. 
2. Creating or maintaining a community (27.9%): When you build a community, you give your members a sense of connection, belonging, and support. It’s easier for members to reach their goals when everyone works together. The stronger the interpersonal relationships in your community, the lower your churn rates. 
3. Making a living (13.1%): It’s a straightforward reason; you’re building a gym and relying on it to make a living/take care of your family. It’s a hard road to take initially, but it’s definitely doable, provided that you have the right approach and a clear action plan. 

Your “why” gets you through the difficult times. 

If you have a strong “why,” you understand the mission; you know why you’re in business. 

You’re not stupid. 

You know the risks; it’s just that you believe in what you’re doing, and you know your business can make a difference. 

This isn’t speculation. Almost half  (47.5%) of those surveyed have a college degree. Just over thirty percent (30.3%) of you have an advanced degree. If it was primarily about making a living, there are easier ways to go about doing that.

No, it’s more than that. 

Most of you are change agents—you help your members become the person they’ve always wanted to be. It’s not an easy option, but it’s incredibly rewarding. 

You’ve still gotta eat though.

Gym Pricing: What Gyms Charge their Members

Pricing can be challenging.

You can’t compete on price—competitors like Planet Fitness have economies of scale; they can price you out of the market if you decide to go head-to-head. So what are your options? When it comes to pricing, many gym owners choose one of the following options:

1. Value pricing: This pricing model is grounded in a range of amenities, personalized services, incentives, and rewards. If your goal is to attract discerning customers who prioritize quality and value, this model is highly effective. 
2. Tiered pricing: These are typically membership tiers offering a range of pricing options tailored to specific membership segments (e.g., beginner, intermediate, advanced, or standard, premium, and deluxe options). 
3. Annual pricing: This is a tough sell. It can be challenging to get members to pay for an annual membership upfront, and it is often more difficult to retain them after their membership expires. If they don’t feel they’ve received value from their membership, they are much less likely to renew.  
4. Dynamic pricing: Straightforward pricing that’s more expensive during peak hours and less expensive during off-peak hours. 
5. Integrated pricing: Members get a choice—they can choose the deluxe membership, pay for drop-ins on an as-needed basis, or create an a la carte option that allows them to choose the options they need. 
6. Penetration pricing: Low (i.e., rock bottom) pricing that’s designed to draw new customers in. It’s a risky option that can backfire if not handled well.  

Here’s another important detail about pricing. 

It changes constantly. 

The vast majority of gyms (55.1%) reevaluate their pricing every year, while 18.6% don’t reevaluate their pricing regularly. It’s a smart idea to re-evaluate your pricing each year. Your business is affected by a variety of factors that are out of your control, including:

• Customer demographics: Younger populations in urban areas are much more open to purchasing gym memberships. The size of your local population, the age of your population, and urbanization all have an impact on your pricing. 
• Costs: If you find that your costs are increasing consistently over time, the obvious solution is to raise your pricing. This seems obvious until you realize that doing so puts you at the higher end of a customer’s willingness to pay. This isn’t always an issue for gyms, but when it is, it’s a challenge. 
• Pricing: Pricing itself affects your marketing overall. If you want to make money with volume, you’ll present customers with affordable pricing options (i.e., Planet Fitness). If you’re looking to maintain a standard or status in the industry and you’re looking to provide customers with a more premium experience, you’ll increase your pricing. 
• Income levels: Areas with high disposable incomes mean more members. People with disposable income can afford to pay for gym memberships and deluxe services that facilitate gym growth. 
• The economic climate: Recessions, expansions, inflation, and supply chain issues all impact your fitness studio and your ability to retain members.
• Competitor pricing: Competitor pricing may affect how customers respond to your business. If one of your competitors raises their prices substantially, you may find more members running to your doorstep. If they drastically cut their prices, you may lose a few of your customers. 
• Force majeure: A legal term meaning “Superior Force,” force majeure is described as any event that prevents a party from fulfilling their contractual obligations. COVID-19 was a prime example. A pandemic shut businesses down worldwide, bringing gyms to a standstill. Gyms and fitness studios closed at a higher rate than most other industries. 
• Supply and demand: If you’re in a small to medium-sized town, pricing constraints may be very different from the constraints on gyms in a large city. 

Pricing is a cornerstone of marketing. 

It’s the only element in the marketing mix (product, price, placement, promotion) that generates revenue directly. Here’s what other gym owners are doing in their marketing.  

Gym Marketing: How Gyms Attract Members

Do gym owners choose to tackle their marketing on their own? Or do they recruit outside help? The answer may surprise you. When it comes to marketing, most gym owners choose to tackle marketing on their own. 

• Most gym owners have not worked with a marketing agency (63.9). 
• Of the gyms that do, the outcome is a toss-up. About half had a negative experience. The other half had a positive experience

It’s time to attract new members. How do gym owners do it? Is there a specific marketing channel or approach that works best? What do gyms use to attract new customers? 

• 64.7% rely on content marketing via their blog, podcast, and social media
• 53.7% use paid ads—Google, Facebook, X, Pinterest
• Less than half (44.2%) use email marketing  
• 27%  lean on local marketing and partnerships

Are these methods effective? If we look at the data, we see that:

• 40 was the median number of new members for 2024
• 20 was the median number of members lost
• Top-performing gyms gained up to 500 members
• 74.8% of gym owners don’t know how much it costs to get a new member 
• 71.3% of new members came via referrals
• 69.6% came via online search
• 50.8% came via social media
• Only a quarter of new members (25.4%) found gyms through paid ads

Can you see the opportunity?

If you want your gym to grow as much as possible for the foreseeable future, you need a plan. The right plan takes advantage of the opportunities your competitors leave behind. Here’s a simple plan you can customize and build on.

Let’s break this down. 

• Paid media: According to HBU, paid media is “any marketing effort that involves paying to display promotional content across social media, search engines, or websites.” Google and Facebook ads are examples of paid media.
• Earned media: This “is public exposure through word of mouth, customer reviews, social media mentions, or media coverage resulting from your content or services’ quality and relevancy.” Earned media includes unpaid media mentions, reviews, testimonials, and social media feedback. 
• Owned media refers to content your gym creates, such as its website, email, video, and social media. With owned media, you have a significant degree of control over the content you create and the experience members have with your brand. 

You can use this in all kinds of creative ways. 

You can use Google Ads (paid media) to send prospects to your landing pages (owned media). From there, potential members opt-in to your email list (owned media) to receive your offer. If you’re using a platform like Gymdesk to send marketing emails, you can send out a broadcast (one-time) and autoresponder (triggered) emails on a schedule. 

You can do the same thing with earned media as well. 

If you’ve earned media mentions, you can send people to your website for more information. From there, you can ask for the following, opt-in, or sale. 

Here’s the basic strategy.

You convert the attention gained from paid and earned media into owned media via follows, shares, subscriptions, and opt-ins. This sounds like marketing 101, and it is, but we’re not done yet. 

We’re going to use the 60-30-10 rule. 

• Spend 10% of your budget on Cold traffic. Promote your content to highly targeted groups, potential members who have never heard of you. Find a way to give them immediate value through digital content or in-person experiences, and ask them to opt-in to receive that value. Want to convert these prospects to hot traffic? Make a small, tripwire offer—a small purchase, after they’ve opted-in to your email list. 
• Spend 30% of your budget on Warm traffic. These potential members are now (a.) warm – they’ve heard of your gym, (b.) they’re interested enough in your offer to try it, and (c.) they’re on your list. Continue to nurture and cultivate your leads over time. 
• Spend 60% of your budget on Hot traffic. These are potential members who are on fire and close to signing up. They’ve expressed interest in your gym. They consume the owned media you produce, and they’re interested in your offer. 

Which growth hacks are gym owners using to bring new members in? 

New Gym Members: Growth & Marketing Hacks from Real Gym Owners

Marketing hacks are a dime a dozen. If you’re looking for a way to turbocharge growth, you need growth hacks with a proven track record. Here are a few growth hacks gym owners have used successfully to bring in new members:

Bring-a-Friend Promos

“I don’t have enough courage to go to the gym alone.” It’s an unspoken objection, but it’s one that many people are unwilling to admit to others publicly. Bring a friend promos defuse this objection in a way that preserves your member’s dignity. They don’t have to admit they were scared. They don’t have to admit that they felt intimidated or uncomfortable. If prospective members are struggling with this objection, this is an easy way to solve the problem. 

Source: Work Out Anytime Dumfries

Gym Open house 

An open house allows members to check things out. They can get a tour of the facility, check out the equipment in your gym, or take a closer look at the amenities you offer. It’s a low-risk way for prospects to self-identify and determine whether they’re interested or not. 

Source: Harbor Fitness

Fitness Challenges & Seminars

A fitness challenge is a great way to bring in new members. It’s easier for members to make a short-term commitment to determine whether they like your gym or not. Members get a jump start on the results they’re pursuing in a short period of time.

An important caveat with fitness challenges. Do your best to avoid gimmicks. Don’t crater your gym’s reputation to make a quick buck. Take the steady route and look to bring in true believers. Stable, long-term members who value what you’re offering. 

Source: Adam Eugene Kaiser

Gymdesk Email and Text Automation

Which channel is best for you?

It’s actually a trick question. When it comes to email, text, and push automation, it’s not either/or, it’s all. You want to be able to use each of these channels to reach out to your members. 

Here’s why.   

These channels have a unique role in consumers’ minds. A recent report found that customers have specific expectations with each channel. People generally sign up for SMS messages to receive:

1. Coupons and deals
2. Personal alerts (e.g., billing and payment, account updates, notifications, etc.)
3. Messages that keep them in the loop
4. More content in a more digestible format
5. They don’t feel like visiting the brand website/app for more info
6. Faster access to info
7. Request feedback, action, or advice (i.e., reviews)

On the other hand, email is the OG. It’s a channel customers are used to. With email, customers expect:

• Receive email that informs and educates
• Provide coupons and deals
• Build, establish, and maintain community
• Sell products and services
• Provide exclusivity and prestige
• Deep, thorough content on topics that interest them
• Request feedback, action, or advice (i.e., reviews)

See the overlap?

It’s a great idea to use these tools together. For example, you could use automations and review request templates to boost your aggregate review ratings and local search rankings. 

Here’s a template you can use to request reviews: 

SMS: OPENER

“On a scale of 0 – 10, how likely are you to recommend us?”

Their response will tell you whether they’re a promoter, detractor, or passive. If they’re an evangelist, you can add them to your review response sequence and send them the first template in that sequence: 

SMS #S1: REQUEST FEEDBACK 

“I think you’re amazing. Would you be willing to share your success story w/ me? Just have 6 questions. Takes 2 min. [insert review funnel link]“

Here’s the email template that goes with the SMS template above. 

EMAIL #S1: REQUEST FEEDBACK

Subject: {f.name}, you are an…

Body:

{f.name},

You are an amazing person. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with you. In the [duration] we’ve worked together, you’ve achieved [result], and you’ve been consistent.

I’m contacting our best members (top 3%) for feedback. That’s You! Would you be willing to answer 6 questions? Takes 2 min.[insert review funnel link]“

We love you either way!

[Signature]

If they’re passive, you can leave them alone for now (since passives attract more passives). If they’re a detractor, you can add them to a different sequence and send the SMS message below: 

SMS #S1: SHARE FEEDBACK 

“I’m so sorry we messed things up. Where did we go wrong? [connect to support team]“

Here’s how you’d set that up in an automation sequence. 

It’s that easy. 

But it all comes crashing down if you don’t have the right support teams in place. 

Gym Employment Statistics: Finding A-players

It’s common for gyms to rely on a mix of part-time, full-time, volunteer, contractor, and W2 staff members. 

• 41.8% of gym owners use volunteers in their business. 
• 50.8% gym owners use part-time employees 
• The average number of staff is 7 (6.8)
• The average number of paid staff members is 5 (5.36)
• Most trainers (72.6%) have certifications and degrees.  
• Certifications include CPR, NASM, NCSF, NSCA, ACE, ACSM, and others. 

Certifications aren’t the most important. 

So what is?

A-players who are a culture-fit for your gym. Here’s how you go about finding them. 

You create a virtual bench.

Your virtual bench is simply a pool of A-player staff members who are employees-in-waiting. Relying on employee advocates is an effective strategy because the results compound over time. Your employees attract what they are. Your A-player employees, with (and sometimes without) incentives from you, will attract other A-players. High achievers prefer to spend their time with like-minded people. 

Here’s how you build your virtual bench. 

1. Start with a list of volunteers. Those who perform well are eligible to become contractors. 
2. Build out a list of contractors. These are volunteers with a proven track record who continue to demonstrate that they’re A-player candidates. 
3. Hire the best contractors as part-time employees. These employees have a proven track record as both volunteers and contractors. Here’s the best part. If you’ve built your systems well, the training part-timers need is minimal. They’re already familiar with the ins and outs of your gym!
4. Upgrade the best part-time employees to full-time status. Full-time employees are solid, proven, A-player candidates. They’re a culture fit, and they’ve demonstrated a level of loyalty and service that other staff members do not. 

Here’s why you need a virtual bench. 

• The virtual bench is passive. Your gym will always have a pool of A-players to choose from and it costs you nothing.
• When you have an opening, HR can choose from a pre-screened list of candidates who are a cultural fit, are confirmed A-players, and are eager to support your gym. 
• You can find and hire A-players who are cheaper and better than “proven” candidates who have years of experience. You don’t have to compete for these candidates; they already work with you.
  Your virtual bench is built from existing employees. A-players don’t like B-players. If they’re a true top performer, they spend time with other top performers.

It’s an excellent way to find, attract, and keep all-star employees.

It’s a win/win. 

Most gyms struggle with the same problems

Gym owners worry about attracting new members and quality employees. The vast majority of gym owners want to build a stable gym and grow quickly.

All of that begins with you. 

More than ever, people are focused on their health and well-being—79.8% of the population do not have a gym membership. There’s a lot of room for growth! 

Your competitors have noticed. 

Use the data in this ultimate guide to learn from your competitors. Use the strategy, tactics, and templates I’ve shared to surpass them. Make a consistent effort to implement these ideas and you’ll find improving your gym operations is simple and efficient.