Youth sports data.Participation is up since the pandemic. Regular play among boys is down.

How many kids play sports in the United States depends on how you count. The most-cited measure, the National Survey of Children's Health, found that 55.4% of kids ages 6 to 17 played sports in 2023, up from 53.8% in 2022, according to the Aspen Institute's Project Play. A separate industry survey from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) found that 6% more kids ages 6 to 17 played a team sport at least once in 2024 than in 2023.

Project Play's State of Play 2025 report concludes that more children were engaged in organized play than at any time since 2019. The recovery is real. It is also uneven.

The numbers at a glance

• 55.4%of kids ages 6 to 17 played sports in 2023, up from 53.8% in 2022National Survey of Children's Health, via Project Play
• 46%rise in what youth sports costs since 2019Aspen Institute Project Play
• 42%of boys ages 6 to 17 played sports regularly in 2024, down from 50% in 2013Project Play and American Institute for Boys and Men
• 4% vs 2.7%of kids ages 6 to 12 played flag football vs tackle football in 2024SFIA data, via Project Play

What youth sports costs families

The same report finds costs up 46% since 2019. According to Project Play, the average U.S. sports family spent $1,016 on their child's primary sport in 2024, as reported by Sports Destinations.

Money also shapes how kids play. Project Play finds that children from the wealthiest households play their primary sport more frequently in team and travel settings, while children from the lowest-income households play most in free play. We cover the policy fight over those costs in our explainer on the Let Kids Play Act.

Where boys are falling behind

A September 2026 report from Project Play and the American Institute for Boys and Men found that the share of boys ages 6 to 17 who play sports regularly slid from 50% in 2013 to 42% in 2024, as reported by Youth Sports Business Report. The decline shows up in school sports too: boys on high school teams fell from 64% in 2011 to 56% in 2023.

Baseball and tackle football both lost players over five years. Baseball was down 19% among kids ages 6 to 12 and 16% among ages 13 to 17. Tackle football was down 7% and 9% in the same age groups.

The report draws on the 2025 Youth Athlete Survey, which asked 3,827 kids ages 10 to 17 about their experience. Among the boys in it, the answers point to coaching and fear:

• Among boys who play now, the top complaint was bad coaching (22%), ahead of cost (17%).
• Among boys who never played organized sports, 49.5% said fear of injury kept them out.
• 31% of boys who never played said they were not good enough, and 30% said their friends do not play.

Flag football is the bright spot

Flag football was the only team sport tracked by SFIA that grew in regular participation among kids ages 6 to 17 from 2019 to 2024. In 2024, 4% of kids ages 6 to 12 played flag football, compared with 2.7% who played tackle, according to SFIA data cited by Project Play. We look at the numbers behind it in our flag football report.

What this means if you run a program

These are our conclusions, not findings from the reports.

• Make the first season easy to say yes to: show the all-in price and offer a recreational, no-cut path, since both cost and “not good enough” keep kids out.
• Treat coaching as a retention tool: bad coaching was the top complaint among boys who play, so coach training and clear expectations are not a nice-to-have.
• Watch the gap, not just the total: overall participation is recovering while the gap between lower-income and higher-income kids persists.
• Consider lower-barrier formats such as flag football for kids who are put off by contact and equipment.

If you run registration, our guide to collecting team fees online covers the money side.