Youth Sports Participation in the U.S.

The NSCH found that an estimated 53.8% of children aged 6 to 17 played on a sports team or took lessons as of 2022 — down from 58.4% in 2017, the first year the survey asked about sports participation. In 2022, this amounted to 26.8 million kids participating in some form of sports while 23.0 million did not.

Youth sports by state

Sports participation rates tend to be higher in the Northern US than in the Southern states. In 2022, the states with the highest percentage of kids playing sports were Vermont (69.4%), Iowa (67.8%), North Dakota (66.7%), Maine (64.4%), and Wyoming (64.4%).

Meanwhile, New Mexico had the lowest percentage of kids involved in sports at 40.8%, more than five percentage points lower than any other state. New Mexico was followed by Nevada (46.1%), Mississippi (46.2%), Louisiana (46.5%), and West Virginia (47.7%).

See the data tab for the full list of states.