Exercise habit statistics measure several different things: facility membership, activity participation, guideline adherence, prescribed-session completion, retention and intervention effects. The figures below keep those definitions separate, with U.S. survey results, international pooled estimates and clinical-program evidence identified by period and population.
Key Exercise Habit Statistics
The most broadly useful figures are:
- In 2024, 77 million U.S. residents aged 6 and older were fitness-facility members.
- In 2024, fitness facilities served nearly 96 million total U.S. customers.
- In 2024, 24.9% of Americans aged 6 and older belonged to a fitness facility.
- In 2024, 31.0% of Americans aged 6 and older were reached by total fitness-facility customer penetration.
- In 2024, 43.4% of U.S. fitness-facility members used treadmills.
- In 2024, 32.1% of U.S. fitness-facility members used dumbbells or free weights.
- From 2021 to 2024, resistance-machine use among U.S. fitness-facility members fell from 31.4% to 26.6%.
- From 2021 to 2024, pickleball participation among U.S. fitness-facility members rose from 3.3% to 8.1%.
- In 2024, 22.6% of U.S. fitness-facility members worked with a personal trainer.
- Across 32 countries, 17.12% of adults met both aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines in studies published through September 2022.
- Across the same pooled international analysis, 19.74% of adolescents aged 12–17 met both guidelines.
- An international review found 22.8% of adults met muscle-strengthening guidelines in studies available through March 2022.
- In 2022, 13.9% of community-dwelling U.S. adults aged 65 and older met both federal guidelines.
- In 2022, 16.8% of U.S. adults aged 65–74 met both guidelines, compared with 6.2% of those aged 85 and older.
- In 2022, 16.9% of older U.S. men met both guidelines, compared with 11.5% of older U.S. women.
- In 2022, 25.6% of older adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher met both guidelines.
- In 2022, 19.3% of older adults with zero or one chronic condition met both guidelines, compared with 7.8% with four or more conditions.
- In prescribed-exercise studies through October 2020, older adults completed an average of 80% of prescribed sessions.
- In structured physical-activity studies published through 2019, intervention adherence was 63.0%.
Contents
- Participation scale and facility trends
- Activity, equipment and coaching data
- Guideline adherence
- Older-adult and demographic differences
- Health status and access differences
- Adherence, retention and maintenance
Exercise Habit Participation Statistics and Facility Trends
The Health & Fitness Association’s 2024 figures describe a rolling 12-month participation window for U.S. residents aged 6 and older. Membership and customer penetration describe reach, not how often people exercise or how long they train.
- Fitness-facility membership rose 5.6% in 2024 year over year, after rising 5.8% in 2023.
- Membership reached 24.9% of Americans aged 6 and older in 2024.
- Total fitness-facility customer penetration reached 31.0% of Americans aged 6 and older in 2024.
- The sector counted 77 million members and nearly 96 million total customers in the United States in 2024.
Health & Fitness Association, “How 77 Million Fitness Members Work Out”
The customer measure is broader than membership because it includes aggregator, pay-as-you-go, insurance and employer-program users. These categories should not be treated as proof of regular attendance.
Exercise Habit Statistics by Activity, Equipment and Coaching
Facility-member data shows which equipment and services participants reported using in 2024. The percentages have a facility-member denominator and do not measure workout frequency, duration or compliance with strength-training recommendations.
| Activity or service | Share of U.S. facility members | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Treadmills | 43.4% | 2024 |
| Dumbbells or free weights | 32.1% | 2024 |
| Resistance machines | 26.6% | 2024 |
| Ellipticals | 18.8% | 2024 |
| Pilates | 8.1% | 2024 |
Source: Health & Fitness Association.
The longer trend series shows changing preferences rather than a causal explanation:
- Resistance-machine use declined from 31.4% in 2021 to 26.6% in 2024 among U.S. facility members.
- Elliptical use declined from 23.2% in 2021 to 18.8% in 2024.
- Yoga participation increased from 20.2% to 21.8% year over year in the HFA series, from 2023 to 2024.
- Pickleball participation rose from 3.3% in 2021 to 8.1% in 2024 among U.S. facility members.
- 22.6% of members worked with a personal trainer in 2024, while 32.3% took part in small-group training.
- Women’s personal-training participation increased 15.9% to 7.3 million participants in 2024; this percentage change is not a share of all women.
Exercise Habit Data for Aerobic and Muscle-Strengthening Guidelines
Guideline adherence is stricter than belonging to a facility or reporting equipment use. The federal aerobic target is at least 150–300 minutes of moderate activity per week, or 75–150 minutes of vigorous activity; the muscle-strengthening target is moderate-or-greater activity involving all major muscle groups on at least 2 days per week.
A systematic review of studies published through September 2022 pooled 32 countries and estimated that 17.12% of adults met both guidelines, with a 95% confidence interval of 15.42%–18.88%. Among adolescents aged 12–17, the pooled estimate was 19.74%, with a 95% confidence interval of 14.72%–25.31%; no child estimate was available.
Sources: PubMed systematic review of aerobic and muscle-strengthening guideline adherence and CDC/NCHS guideline definitions.
A separate systematic review of 30 observational studies, covering 2,629,508 participants and studies available through March 2022, estimated that 22.8% of adults met muscle-strengthening guidelines. Its 95% confidence interval was 18.18%–27.77%, and the review examined 23 potential correlates across five socioecological levels; the pooled studies varied in definitions and are not a single current-country estimate.
Source: Systematic review of sufficient muscle-strengthening exercise.
Exercise Habit Statistics Among Older Adults and Demographic Groups
CDC/NCHS estimates come from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey. They are age-adjusted, self-reported leisure-time activity estimates for the community-dwelling U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population, so institutionalized adults are excluded.
| Older-adult group | Met both guidelines in 2022 |
|---|---|
| All adults aged 65+ | 13.9% |
| Ages 65–74 | 16.8% |
| Ages 75–84 | 12.3% |
| Ages 85+ | 6.2% |
| Men aged 65+ | 16.9% |
| Women aged 65+ | 11.5% |
Source: CDC/NCHS, Physical Activity Among Adults Aged 65 and Older: United States, 2022.
The same 2022 table reports the following age-adjusted subgroup estimates:
- 15.2% of older non-Hispanic White adults met both guidelines, compared with 10.3% of older Hispanic adults, 12.2% of older non-Hispanic Asian adults and 10.2% of older non-Hispanic Black adults.
- 25.6% of older adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher met both guidelines, compared with 5.6% of those with less than a high-school diploma or GED.
- 21.4% of older adults at 400% or more of the federal poverty level met both guidelines.
- 17.0% of older adults in the U.S. West met both guidelines; the reported estimates were 6.4% in metropolitan areas and 10.0% in nonmetropolitan areas.
These are observational subgroup associations. They do not establish that education, income, race or geography causes a particular exercise habit.
Exercise Habit, Health Status and Access Differences
Health status is also associated with reported guideline adherence in the 2022 older-adult NHIS estimates. The measures below are cross-sectional and should not be read as evidence that activity caused, or was caused by, the reported condition.
- 19.3% of older adults with zero or one chronic condition met both guidelines, compared with 7.8% of those with four or more chronic conditions.
- 15.9% of older adults without disabilities met both guidelines, compared with 5.0% of older adults with disabilities.
- 15.6% of older adults with no depression symptoms met both guidelines, compared with 4.7% of those with moderate or severe depression symptoms.
- 14.8% of older adults with no anxiety symptoms met both guidelines, compared with 5.4% of those with moderate or severe anxiety symptoms.
- 20.7% of older adults classified as healthy weight met both guidelines, compared with 8.3% of those classified as obese.
The disability measure used Washington Group functioning questions; depression symptoms used PHQ-8, and anxiety symptoms used GAD-7. BMI relied on respondent-reported height and weight, so these definitions describe survey categories rather than clinical diagnoses or causal effects.
Source: CDC/NCHS, Physical Activity Among Adults Aged 65 and Older: United States, 2022.
Exercise Habit Adherence, Retention and Maintenance Statistics
Prescribed exercise and structured interventions measure adherence differently from population surveys. Completed sessions, categorical adherence and retention are separate outcomes, and clinically selected participants are not interchangeable with the general population.
Among older adults prescribed exercise for medical or surgical indications, a systematic review of studies through October 2020 found average completed-session adherence of 80%, ranging from 60% to 98%. Average categorical adherence was 57.5%, ranging from 21% to 83%; categorical thresholds differed across programs.
The review included 5,785 participants across 19 observational studies and 4 randomized trials.
Source: Systematic review of adherence to prescribed exercise among older adults.
For structured physical-activity interventions in studies published through 2019, the pooled evidence reported:
| Outcome | Intervention | Control |
|---|---|---|
| Retention at follow-up | 75.1% | 75.4% |
| Adherence | 63.0% | 77.8% |
Source: Systematic review and meta-analysis of structured physical-activity interventions.
The control-group adherence estimate had a 19.4%–98.1% interval across studies, reflecting inconsistent definitions. The pooled standardized effect on physical-activity levels during adoption was 0.15, with a 95% interval of −0.06 to 0.36; during maintenance more than 6 months after initiation, it was 0.19, with a 95% interval of −0.68 to 1.07.
Both maintenance evidence and interpretation are limited by wide intervals and heterogeneous study designs.