Gym, health & fitness club industry market size in the United Kingdom (UK) 2012-2022

Every day, thousands of fitness fanatics hit the gym to keep in shape. However, the coronavirus pandemic which swept across the world in 2020 had a significant impact on the fitness industry as many establishments were forced to close their doors to stem the spread of the disease. While the market size of the fitness club industry in the United Kingdom grew to above two billion British pounds in the years leading up the pandemic, forecasts suggest that the value of the industry will fall to 1.62 billion British pounds in 2021.

Health & Fitness Clubs

Over the past decade the number of health and fitness clubs in Europe significantly increased to roughly 64 thousand by the end of 2019. However , it has yet to be determined exactly how much that number decreased since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The United Kindom has the second highest number of health and fitness club memberships, after Germany, both with ober ten thousand memberships right before the start of the pandemic.

Home Gyms

With COVID-19, many people in the UK started to work out at home rather than going to a gym. With that the sale of home gym equipment drastically increased. In 2020, the sale of steppers and weight benches increased by 6,500 and 4,130 percent respectively. The sale of exercise bikes, weights and pilates equipment also increased at least by tenfold. The highest growth of fitness related Google search terms in 2020 were “32kg kettlebell”, “free exercise classes” and “online workouts from home” among others, all relating to workout equipment or classes.