Contents
- Water sports participation statistics: UK adults’ stated interest and safety
- Water sports participation statistics: paddlesports and days on the water
- Water sports participation statistics: sailing and manual activity frequency
- Water sports participation statistics: coastal activity frequency and travel
- Water sports participation statistics: boating participation in NSW
- Water sports participation statistics: boating days in the United States
- Water sports participation statistics: outdoor pursuits in Wales
- Sources
Water sports participation statistics: UK adults’ stated interest and safety
Participation figures describe different things: an intention to try an activity, a report of having done it, or a frequency over a defined period. Those distinctions matter when reading the UK Watersports Participation Survey 2025 executive summary. Its survey interviewed 12,114 UK adults online between 15 September and 14 November 2025, with responses weighted to represent UK adults by age, gender, region and socio-economic group. The findings below are from the summary’s stated coverage period, September 2024–September 2025.
A reported 80% of respondents said they would like to take part in any type of activity in the future. This is stated future interest, not a measure of how many people actually participated. The same summary says average annual spending on watersports pastimes was £1,330, varying widely by activity. It does not specify whether that average is a mean or median, nor give a more specific denominator, so the figure is best read as the report’s broad spending measure.
The summary also records barriers and safety preparation. Among female respondents, 17% said they did not take part in watersport activities because of fear of water; among disabled respondents, the reported share was 16%. The summary does not give a more specific denominator for these two figures. Separately, 46% of surveyed watersport participants had not had formal training relating to their watersport. That training result applies to participants, while the fear-of-water results describe reasons for not taking part. They should not be treated as directly comparable measures.
Source: Watersports Participation Survey 2025: Executive Summary, pp. 2, 4–5, 7.
Water sports participation statistics: paddlesports and days on the water
The 2022 UK Watersports Participation Survey reports how often UK adults took part in activity groups during the preceding 12 months. In its weighted results, 10.8% took part in paddlesport activities 1–2 times in 2022, while 4.5% did so 3 or more times. The corresponding 2021 column records 10.8% for 1–2 occasions and 3.9% for 3 or more. These are frequency bands, not counts of individual outings or a total participation rate. The repeated 10.8% in the 1–2-times band does not imply that the broader participation pattern was unchanged.
A separate U.S. measure covers paddling while boating. In 2018, 39.2% of U.S. persons who went recreational boating at least once reported paddling at least once while boating. The report also prints 33,141 thousand people for that activity. The count and percentage represent the same observation in two forms; they are not separate measures of participation. The denominator is boaters who went out on the water in a recreational boat at least once in 2018, and the report notes that onboard activity categories can overlap.
| Measure | Period and population | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| Paddlesports, 1–2 times | UK adults, preceding 12 months, 2022 | 10.8% |
| Paddlesports, 3 or more times | UK adults, preceding 12 months, 2022 | 4.5% |
| Paddlesports, 1–2 times | UK adults, preceding 12 months, 2021 | 10.8% |
| Paddlesports, 3 or more times | UK adults, preceding 12 months, 2021 | 3.9% |
| Paddling at least once while boating | U.S. recreational boaters, 2018 | 39.2%; 33,141 thousand people |
Source: Watersports Participation Survey 2022, pp. 1–2; 2018 National Recreational Boating Safety Survey: Participation Survey Final Report, p. 20, Table 3-7.
Water sports participation statistics: sailing and manual activity frequency
The UK 2022 frequency table also separates sailing and manual activity into the same two past-year bands. In 2022, 8.2% of UK adults reported taking part in sailing activities 1–2 times, and 1.8% reported 3 or more times. For manual activities, the corresponding results were 12.4% and 6.2%. The survey’s methodology says responses were weighted to the proportions of the UK population.
These grouped results show that the table’s activity labels and frequency bands provide useful context, but they do not identify which specific activity each respondent chose within a group. Nor do the frequency percentages by themselves tell us how long an outing lasted. They describe the number of occasions reported within the survey’s preceding-12-month reference period.
| UK adult activity group, 2022 | 1–2 times in preceding 12 months | 3 or more times in preceding 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Sailing activities | 8.2% | 1.8% |
| Manual activities | 12.4% | 6.2% |
Source: Watersports Participation Survey 2022, pp. 1–2, participation-frequency table.
Water sports participation statistics: coastal activity frequency and travel
Coastal activities formed another group in the UK 2022 frequency table. During the preceding 12 months, 42.5% of UK adults reported taking part 3 or more times, while 26.3% reported 1–2 times. These are grouped coastal-activity results; they do not refer to one named sport. As with the other frequency bands, they describe occasions within the period, not time spent on the water.
The report’s location charts answer a different question: where participants did particular activities. For outdoor swimming, 52% of people who had done the activity in the past year had done it outside the UK. This share is conditional on being an outdoor-swimming participant, not the proportion of all UK adults who swam abroad.
For selected manual activities, the 2022 charts report the UK-only location category among people who did each named activity during the past year. The reported shares were 81% for water-skiing or wakeboarding, 47% for surfing, 49% for stand-up paddleboarding, 47% for leisure sub-aqua diving from shore, and 49% for bodyboarding. The chart bases vary by activity, so these values describe the location patterns of each activity’s participants and are not directly comparable as population-wide participation rates.
Source: Watersports Participation Survey 2022, pp. 2, 4–5, frequency table and activity-location charts.
Water sports participation statistics: boating participation in NSW
The NSW Recreational Boater Survey 2023 asked respondents which recreational boats or watercraft they had spent time on in NSW waterways. In the summer 2022/23 survey, 7.3% reported using paddlecraft, such as a canoe, kayak or ski; 4.4% reported using a stand-up paddleboard; and 1.9% reported using a jet ski or personal watercraft. Figure 2 uses all NSW respondents as its base: 8,633 in 2023, compared with 8,004 in 2018. These are respondent shares, not figures limited to recent recreational boaters.
The report also gives approximate population extrapolations from the survey: 590,000 NSW paddlecraft users, 356,000 stand-up paddleboard users and 151,000 jet ski users. It estimates 85,000 users of sailboats 4.8 metres or longer and 41,000 users of sailboats shorter than 4.8 metres. These are separate watercraft categories and should be understood as the report’s extrapolated user counts, rather than as survey sample sizes.
A separate chart concerns the main purpose of respondents’ most recent recreational boating trip in NSW waters. Among those who boated recreationally in NSW waters, 58% named fishing, 22% cruising or sightseeing, 5% fitness or training, 4% water skiing, and 2% diving or snorkelling. The 2023 base for that chart was 1,593 respondents. Because the question asks for the main purpose of the most recent trip, these values do not describe all activities respondents may have done on that trip or their overall participation in each sport.
| NSW survey measure | 2023 result |
|---|---|
| Reported paddlecraft use on NSW waterways | 7.3% |
| Reported stand-up paddleboard use | 4.4% |
| Reported jet ski/PWC use | 1.9% |
| Extrapolated paddlecraft users | Approximately 590,000 |
| Extrapolated stand-up paddleboard users | Approximately 356,000 |
| Extrapolated jet ski users | Approximately 151,000 |
Source: NSW Recreational Boater Survey 2023: REF 6612, pp. 13–14, Figure 2 and population extrapolations; p. 26, Figure 14.
Water sports participation statistics: boating days in the United States
The U.S. National Recreational Boating Safety Survey distinguishes people who boated from all people in U.S. households. Among recreational boaters who went out on the water at least once in 2018, the mean was 17.5 boating days and the median was 8.0 days. For all persons, including those who did not go boating, the mean was 4.6 days. The different population bases explain why these figures answer different questions: one describes days among boaters, and the other averages across all household residents.
The survey also reports activities done at least once while boating in 2018. Among people who boated at least once, 43.4% reported cruising and 29.9% reported fishing or crabbing. Other reported onboard activities were paddling at 39.2%, sailing at 4.4%, rowing at 4.4%, jet skiing at 8.7%, water skiing or wakeboarding at 7.0%, scuba diving or snorkeling off a boat at 4.0%, and whitewater rafting at 1.8%. These are overlapping activity categories: a person could report more than one, so the percentages should not be added to create a total.
| U.S. boating measure | Population and period | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Mean boating days | Recreational boaters, 2018 | 17.5 days |
| Median boating days | Recreational boaters, 2018 | 8.0 days |
| Mean boating days | All persons in U.S. households, 2018 | 4.6 days |
Source: 2018 National Recreational Boating Safety Survey: Participation Survey Final Report, pp. 19–20, Tables 3-6 and 3-7.
Water sports participation statistics: outdoor pursuits in Wales
Sport Wales’ 2024–25 survey covers adults aged 16 and older in Wales and measures participation during the previous four weeks. In the Outdoor Pursuits activity table, 0.8% of adults participated in canoeing or kayaking, corresponding to a rounded estimate of 19,000 adults. For paddleboarding, the reported participation share was 0.7%, corresponding to 17,000 adults. The population counts are rounded to the nearest thousand.
The same table separates recent participation from demand to do more. For canoeing or kayaking, 1.1% of adults reported demand, with a rounded count of 27,000. For paddleboarding, demand was 0.7%, or 18,000 adults. Demand is a separate survey measure; it does not mean those adults participated during the previous four weeks. The percentages and counts in each pair are two presentations of the same measure.
| Outdoor pursuit in Wales, 2024–25 | Participation in previous 4 weeks | Demand to do more |
|---|---|---|
| Canoeing / kayaking | 0.8%; 19,000 adults | 1.1%; 27,000 adults |
| Paddleboarding | 0.7%; 17,000 adults | 0.7%; 18,000 adults |
Source: Sport and Active Lifestyles: State of the Nation report 2024–25, Sport section, Detailed Activity table, Outdoor Pursuits.