Europe’s Fitness Market Keeps Growing. It’s Likely Just Scratching the Surface
The European fitness market just broke membership and revenue records, and a new report suggests there’s still plenty of untapped potential
The European fitness market continues to grow, with membership and revenue numbers reaching an all-time high. But Europe might just be scratching the surface of its fitness potential, a new report suggests.
European fitness memberships grew to 71.6 million in 2024, up from 67.7 million in 2023, which itself was a record. Total revenue for the European fitness market also increased, reaching €36 billion ($39.8 million) in 2024, up around 10% from 2023.
Those results are according to the European Health & Fitness Market Report 2025, released Wednesday by Deloitte and EuropeActive, the non-profit trade organization representing Europe’s fitness and physical activity sector.
Last year, the groups projected that Europe would have 100 fitness memberships by 2030. They’re sticking to that goal in 2025.
“Based on the growth shown in our research and the outlook for 2025 and beyond as expressed by the operators we interviewed, we are confident to reach EuropeActive’s ambition of getting to 100 million members of health & fitness centres by 2030,” said Herman Rutgers, the report’s co-author and the ambassador to EuropeActive.
The report’s findings were based on data from a variety of sources including online consumer surveys, unaudited data from fitness operators, interviews with market experts and desktop research, according to Deloitte and EuropeActive.
Large European markets including Germany (11.7 million members), the United Kingdom (11.5 million) and Spain (6.2 million) dominated in 2024, per the report.
Overall, there were 64,550 health and fitness clubs in Europe in 2024, a 2% increase from 2023, which comes as several large European gym chains expanded across the continent last year.
The top three European operators in terms of memberships and revenue were identical to last year. In 2024, Basic-Fit had by far the most members of any brand with 4.25 million, followed by PureGym (1.99 million) and RSG Group, which owns Gold’s Gym, McFit and others (1.81 million).
In terms of revenue, Basic-Fit led all operators with €1.2 billion, followed by David Lloyd Leisure (€1.0 billion) and PureGym (€695 million).
Is Europe a Sleeping Fitness Giant?
While Europe might be rivaling the United States in terms of raw membership numbers – a new report from the Health & Fitness Association (HFA) found that there were 77 million Americans with a fitness membership in 2024 – there’s reason to believe the European market still has plenty of untapped potential.
According to the Deloitte/EuropeActive report, Europe’s fitness penetration rate was 8.9% in 2024. While that’s better than 2019’s pre-pandemic rate of 8.1%, it pales in comparison to the gym-crazy U.S. According to HFA, around 25% of Americans had a gym, health club or studio membership in 2024.
“When considering a penetration rate of above 20% in the USA, further growth potential in the European market can be anticipated,” the report’s authors said.
There’s at least some evidence to suggest Europe’s fitness industry can realize its growth potential. According to consumer survey data cited in the report, Europeans are becoming more willing to join gyms and studios as the pandemic fades from memory. The proportion of active Europeans who regularly visit fitness clubs has steadily increased since 2022, the first year EuropeActive and Deloitte began tracking. In 2025, this number eclipsed 50% for the first time.
At the same time, the proportion of active Europeans who regularly include home fitness as part of their workout routine has declined each year since 2022, suggesting that people in Europe are beginning to see gyms as the place to go when they want to get a sweat on.
It’s perhaps no surprise then that an increasing number of major American fitness brands have begun to target Europe. Planet Fitness has made a big push to expand in Spain, while Xponential Fitness, which owns boutique brands including Club Pilates and StretchLab, continues to open new studios in areas including Germany and Scandinavia.
Anytime Fitness, which already has a large presence in Europe, has its eyes on further international expansion under new parent company Purpose Brands.
The arrival of American brands – along with the continued expansion efforts of top European operators like Basic-Fit and PureGym – should bode well for the growth of Europe’s fitness market in the years to come.
“Overall, the European health and fitness market is set for future growth, driven by an increasing health awareness and activity levels among European citizens as well as further expansion plans of European fitness club owners,” the report concludes.