{
  "name": "Tennis Participation Statistics 2026: Verified Source Extract",
  "version": "1.0",
  "published": "2026-08-27",
  "accessed": "2026-08-27",
  "license": {
    "original_analysis": "CC BY 4.0",
    "notice": "Third-party source data remains subject to each source's terms. This file is an editorial extract, not a replacement for the source publications."
  },
  "method": "Selected official measures are stored with their original period, population definition and source. Values from different sources are not merged.",
  "records": [
    {
      "metric": "annual_players",
      "value": "just under 106 million",
      "unit": "people",
      "denominator": "people who played at least once",
      "geography": "worldwide",
      "data_period": "2024",
      "source_organisation": "International Tennis Federation",
      "source_url": "https://www.itftennis.com/en/news-and-media/articles/itf-global-tennis-report-participation-hits-106-million-in-five-years/",
      "definition": "ITF estimate as published",
      "comparability_note": "Do not combine with the USTA survey.",
      "derived": false
    },
    {
      "metric": "annual_players_2019",
      "value": 84400000,
      "unit": "people",
      "denominator": "people who played at least once",
      "geography": "worldwide",
      "data_period": "2019",
      "source_organisation": "International Tennis Federation",
      "source_url": "https://www.itftennis.com/en/news-and-media/articles/itf-global-tennis-report-participation-hits-106-million-in-five-years/",
      "definition": "ITF estimate in the 2019 report",
      "comparability_note": "Used by the ITF for its 25.6 percent comparison.",
      "derived": false
    },
    {
      "metric": "annual_players",
      "value": 27300000,
      "unit": "people",
      "denominator": "US residents age 6 or older who played at least once",
      "geography": "United States",
      "data_period": "2025",
      "source_organisation": "United States Tennis Association",
      "source_url": "https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2026-pdfs/2026-us-tennis-participation-report.pdf",
      "definition": "National survey estimate with a 95 percent confidence interval of plus or minus 620000",
      "comparability_note": "Different year and method from the ITF estimate.",
      "derived": false
    },
    {
      "metric": "core_players",
      "value": 14500000,
      "unit": "people",
      "denominator": "US residents age 6 or older who played 10 or more times",
      "geography": "United States",
      "data_period": "2025",
      "source_organisation": "United States Tennis Association",
      "source_url": "https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2026-pdfs/2026-us-tennis-participation-report.pdf",
      "definition": "Core participation threshold is 10 sessions",
      "comparability_note": "Do not compare with sports using another core threshold.",
      "derived": false
    },
    {
      "metric": "play_occasions",
      "value": 616000000,
      "unit": "sessions",
      "denominator": "all estimated tennis play occasions",
      "geography": "United States",
      "data_period": "2025",
      "source_organisation": "United States Tennis Association",
      "source_url": "https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2026-pdfs/2026-us-tennis-participation-report.pdf",
      "definition": "Estimated annual occasions of play",
      "comparability_note": "Survey estimate rather than a court-booking census.",
      "derived": false
    },
    {
      "metric": "first_time_players",
      "value": 4900000,
      "unit": "people",
      "denominator": "US residents age 6 or older playing for the first time",
      "geography": "United States",
      "data_period": "2025",
      "source_organisation": "United States Tennis Association",
      "source_url": "https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2026-pdfs/2026-us-tennis-participation-report.pdf",
      "definition": "First-time participant estimate",
      "comparability_note": "Part of the US survey only.",
      "derived": false
    },
    {
      "metric": "retained_players",
      "value": 20700000,
      "unit": "people",
      "denominator": "US residents who played in both 2024 and 2025",
      "geography": "United States",
      "data_period": "2025",
      "source_organisation": "United States Tennis Association",
      "source_url": "https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2026-pdfs/2026-us-tennis-participation-report.pdf",
      "definition": "Retained participant estimate",
      "comparability_note": "Does not alone explain total growth.",
      "derived": false
    },
    {
      "metric": "tennis_courts",
      "value": 698034,
      "unit": "courts",
      "denominator": "courts reported in the ITF global inventory",
      "geography": "worldwide",
      "data_period": "2024",
      "source_organisation": "International Tennis Federation",
      "source_url": "https://www.itftennis.com/en/news-and-media/articles/itf-global-tennis-report-participation-hits-106-million-in-five-years/",
      "definition": "Global court estimate",
      "comparability_note": "National inventory completeness can differ.",
      "derived": false
    }
  ]
}