Exercise participation looks different depending on the definition: federal guideline adherence measures leisure-time activity, while time-use surveys measure primary activities and facility reports measure customer engagement. The statistics below focus on the United States and make each population, period and measurement boundary explicit.
Key Exercise Participation Statistics
The following figures summarize the most useful 2024 measures:
- In 2024, 47.2% of U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized adults age 18 and older met federal aerobic physical-activity guidelines during leisure time.
- In 2024, 52.3% of U.S. men age 18 and older met the federal aerobic activity guidelines.
- In 2024, 42.4% of U.S. women age 18 and older met the federal aerobic activity guidelines.
- In 2024, 54.0% of U.S. adults ages 18–34 met the aerobic activity guidelines.
- In 2024, 38.4% of U.S. adults age 65 and older met the aerobic activity guidelines.
- In 2024, 49.2% of non-Hispanic White U.S. adults met the aerobic guidelines.
- In 2024, 41.4% of non-Hispanic Black U.S. adults met the aerobic guidelines.
- In 2024, 35.4% of U.S. adults below 100% of the federal poverty level met the aerobic guidelines.
- In 2024, 56.5% of U.S. adults at 400% or more of the federal poverty level met the aerobic guidelines.
- In 2024, 58.5% of U.S. adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher met the aerobic guidelines.
- In 2024, 51.9% of U.S. adults in the West met the aerobic guidelines.
- In 2024, 40.2% of U.S. adults in nonmetropolitan areas met the aerobic guidelines.
- On an average day in 2024, 21.5% of U.S. people age 15 and older participated in sports, exercise or recreation as a primary activity.
- On 2024 weekdays, participants age 15 and older spent an average of 1.46 hours on sports, exercise or recreation.
- On 2024 weekend days and holidays, participants age 15 and older spent an average of 1.75 hours on those activities.
- In 2024, U.S. fitness facilities had an estimated 77 million members.
- In 2024, U.S. fitness facilities served nearly 96 million total customers.
Contents
- Key Exercise Participation Statistics
- How Many U.S. Adults Meet Exercise Guidelines?
- Exercise Participation Data by Age, Sex, Race and Ethnicity
- Exercise Participation by Income and Education
- Regional and Urban-Rural Exercise Participation Trends
- Exercise Participation Time Use Across Demographic Groups
- Fitness Facility Membership and Exercise Participation Trends
How Many U.S. Adults Meet Exercise Guidelines?
The CDC’s 2024 estimate places aerobic-guideline adherence at 47.2% among U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized adults age 18 and older. This is a household-interview survey estimate covering leisure-time activity, not every form of movement performed during work, transportation or daily chores.
The federal benchmark is 150–300 minutes of moderate activity, 75–150 minutes of vigorous activity, or an equivalent combination each week. Meeting this benchmark is not the same as belonging to a gym, exercising every day or achieving a particular health outcome.
The CDC reported these 2024 results for broad population groups:
| Population | Met aerobic guidelines in 2024 |
|---|---|
| Adults age 18+ | 47.2% |
| Men age 18+ | 52.3% |
| Women age 18+ | 42.4% |
| Adults age 18–34 | 54.0% |
| Adults age 35–49 | 49.8% |
| Adults age 50–64 | 44.6% |
| Adults age 65+ | 38.4% |
The men’s rate was 9.9 percentage points higher than the women’s rate, a simple difference between the CDC-reported values rather than a separate modeled estimate. The age pattern also declines from 54.0% among adults ages 18–34 to 38.4% among adults age 65 and older.
Source: Aerobic Physical Activity Among Adults Age 18 and Older: United States, 2024. CDC percentages are survey estimates with confidence intervals in the source tables.
Exercise Participation Data by Age, Sex, Race and Ethnicity
Race and Hispanic-origin categories in the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey are not interchangeable: Hispanic adults may be of any race, while the non-Hispanic categories are reported separately. Within those definitions, the 2024 aerobic-guideline rates were:
- 49.2% for non-Hispanic White adults age 18 and older in the United States.
- 47.9% for non-Hispanic Asian adults age 18 and older.
- 43.8% for Hispanic adults age 18 and older.
- 41.4% for non-Hispanic Black adults age 18 and older.
These percentages describe leisure-time activity and should not be read as measurements of total physical activity across all settings. The survey also shows differences associated with disability status:
- 49.8% of adults without disabilities met the aerobic guidelines in 2024.
- 22.4% of adults with disabilities met the aerobic guidelines in 2024.
The disability classification follows the survey definition, so the result should be interpreted as a population comparison within the NHIS framework. It does not establish why the rates differ or imply that disability itself causes a particular activity level.
Source: Aerobic Physical Activity Among Adults Age 18 and Older: United States, 2024.
Exercise Participation by Income and Education
The 2024 CDC estimates show a pronounced gradient across income categories. The federal poverty level categories use prior-year family income and family size, so they are not the same as current-year earnings or household wealth.
| Income category | Met aerobic guidelines in 2024 |
|---|---|
| Below 100% of FPL | 35.4% |
| 100% to under 200% of FPL | 36.7% |
| 200% to under 400% of FPL | 43.8% |
| 400% of FPL or more | 56.5% |
The rate was 21.1 percentage points higher at 400% or more of the federal poverty level than below 100%, calculated directly from the CDC table values. This is a descriptive difference, not an independently modeled causal effect.
Education shows a similar spread:
- 32.3% of adults without a high-school diploma or GED met the guidelines in 2024.
- 38.6% of adults with a high-school diploma or GED met the guidelines.
- 47.4% of adults with an associate degree or some college met the guidelines.
- 58.5% of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher met the guidelines.
The education categories describe the highest reported attainment and do not measure the quality, affordability or location of available exercise opportunities. They also should not be used to infer an individual’s behavior from group-level survey results.
Source: Aerobic Physical Activity Among Adults Age 18 and Older: United States, 2024.
Regional and Urban-Rural Exercise Participation Trends
Regional differences are visible in the CDC’s 2024 leisure-time measure. The West recorded the highest rate among the four census regions, while the South recorded the lowest.
| U.S. region | Met aerobic guidelines in 2024 |
|---|---|
| West | 51.9% |
| Northeast | 48.4% |
| Midwest | 46.4% |
| South | 44.1% |
The West’s rate was 7.8 percentage points above the South’s, a direct subtraction of the cited regional estimates. The data do not identify whether geography, access, climate, income, health status or other factors account for the difference.
Urbanization categories show another gradient:
- 51.5% of adults in large central metropolitan areas met the guidelines in 2024.
- 48.8% of adults in large fringe metropolitan areas met the guidelines.
- 44.5% of adults in medium and small metropolitan areas met the guidelines.
- 40.2% of adults in nonmetropolitan areas met the guidelines.
These are NHIS urbanization estimates for U.S. adults age 18 and older. They describe survey categories rather than a ranking of individual communities, and they measure guideline adherence during leisure time.
Source: Aerobic Physical Activity Among Adults Age 18 and Older: United States, 2024.
Exercise Participation Time Use Across Demographic Groups
The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses a different definition from the CDC. The American Time Use Survey counts sports, exercise and recreation as a primary activity, and its category includes participating in, attending or watching sports and recreation.
In 2024, 21.5% of people age 15 and older participated in that category on an average day. The share was 22.5% on weekdays and 19.1% on weekend days and holidays.
Among people who participated, the average time was 1.46 hours on weekdays and 1.75 hours on weekend days and holidays. These are conditional averages among participants, while the following figures average across each entire population group:
| Group | Average hours per day in 2024 |
|---|---|
| Men age 15+ | 0.38 |
| Women age 15+ | 0.25 |
| People age 15–19 | 0.64 |
| People age 65–74 | 0.32 |
| People age 75+ | 0.27 |
| Black or African American people age 15+ | 0.21 |
| Asian people age 15+ | 0.49 |
| People in households with youngest child under 6 | 0.22 |
The ATUS measures primary activities only, so it is not interchangeable with the CDC’s aerobic-guideline measure. Related travel is included in major categories, and the figures do not show whether an activity was intense enough to satisfy the federal benchmark.
Source: American Time Use Survey—2024 Results.
Fitness Facility Membership and Exercise Participation Trends
Facility engagement is another useful but narrower lens. The Health & Fitness Association estimated 77 million U.S. fitness-facility members in 2024 and nearly 96 million total customers, a broader count that includes members and other customers or users.
The same HFA summary reported nearly 19 million additional Americans used fitness facilities as non-member users in 2024. The figure should not automatically be added to membership because the summary cautions that membership and non-member definitions may overlap.
The HFA 2025 consumer report was based on a nationally representative survey of 18,000 U.S. residents age 6 and older. That respondent count is study context, not a population total, and the behavior snapshot concerns 2024.
Industry benchmarks provide context for facility operations, but they are not population-level exercise outcomes:
| 2024 HFA operator measure | Reported result |
|---|---|
| Median revenue growth | 9.9% |
| Median EBITDA margin | 23.6% |
| Average net membership growth | 5.5% |
| Member retention | Approximately two-thirds |
These figures came from surveyed fitness operators and facilities in HFA’s 2025 benchmarking report. Revenue growth, operating margin, membership growth and retention do not measure exercise frequency, activity intensity, federal-guideline adherence or health outcomes.
Sources: How 77 Million Fitness Members Work Out: New HFA Data Reveals Shifting Equipment, Training, and Membership Trends and Health & Fitness Association Releases 2025 Fitness Industry Benchmarking Report.