Gathering data

The Moving Communities report paints a picture of how the activity industry is evolving, looking at trend data from the last three years.

It uses data from more than three million customers and 150 million individual visits across 396 leisure centres (up on 315 sites last year) since 2016.

The data has been collected from the membership management systems of leisure centre operators, then processed and standardised by the DataHub to provide a previously unattainable level of insight.

Facing the facts - who, what, when and how

The report looks at how customers interact with facilities by exploring four key areas:

• who’s using leisure centres
• when they’re using them
• what they’re doing
• how this differs across key customer segments.

The When

The reports statistics provide essential information when considering scheduling activities for different demographics.

 “Members are opting to make the bulk of visits during the week. This presents significant opportunities to increase capacity, particularly through more family-friendly activity offerings,” says Lizzie Broughton, senior insight manager at ukactive.

“Operators know age plays a role in when consumers visit and have taken great strides to adjust their offerings accordingly. Moving Communities gives even greater insight to inform these adjustments,” says Phillips.

• In 2018 so far, for the third year in a row, the most popular day to work out is Tuesday, with 16 per cent of visits taking place on this day.
  
  
• The least popular is Sunday (12 per cent) .
  
  
• Mornings are by far consumers’ favourite time to work out, with 10am coming out top.
  
  
• Early evening is the most popular time for 33 per cent of the 25-34 age bracket.
  
  
• Only three per cent of over 75s come in the early evening.
  
  
• 47 per cent of the over 75s attend late morning.
  
  
• Females are more likely to visit in the late morning than males.
  
  
• Casual users are most likely to visit at weekends.

 The who, what and how

• Over the last three years, 81 per cent of all visits have been for three core activities - swimming, fitness (gym visits) and group workouts.
  
  
• Football is the most popular – rising from 30 per cent of non-core visits in 2016 to 37 per cent in 2018.
  
  
• For members of all ages, except 75+, the most popular sport is badminton, making up 27 per cent of visits for females, 33 per cent for males. Squash was second most popular.
  
  
• Nearly two thirds of casual visits to leisure centres are for swimming.
  
  
• Indoor cycling is the most popular group workout in the UK – for the third year running (not as one would expect - tried and tested staples of the fitness scene –Pilates, yoga or perhaps Body Pump). Group cycling makes up 13 per cent of attended exercise classes, compared to Pilates (seven per cent) and yoga (six per cent).
  
  
• 38 per cent of women visit fitness facilities for group exercise. (Group workouts overall are far more popular with women than men).
  
  
• Women make up 74 per cent of group exercise participants in total.
  
  
• 14 per cent of men visit fitness facilities for group exercise.
  
  
• Swimming is the activity of choice for the elderly (it makes up 39 per cent of facility visits for people aged 75+) yet it’s much less popular among younger generations – it tallies just eight per cent for those aged 16 to 24.
  Broughton points out “This should be an important area of focus for our sector –
  with active ageing becoming a bigger priority for the nation as our elderly population grows. The industry needs to be ready to meet the growing demand and needs of older customers.

Membership

• Total membership across the 396 sites dipped slightly (down three per cent) from 2017-18, but the total number of members still exceeded two million (2,004,324), suggesting demand for local leisure centres remains constant.
  
  
• The gender split remains unchanged for the third year in a row, with females representing 52 per cent of all members.
  
  
• Like last year, younger age groups make up more of the membership base than they do of the total national population, meaning older age groups are underrepresented – two per cent of members are over 75, yet they currently make up 10 per cent of UK population.
  
  
• Economic factors:
  - The most deprived 10 per cent of England continues to have the lowest percentage of overall leisure centre members (six per cent in FY18).
  - The least deprived 10 per cent now have 14 per cent of overall members, up from 13 per cent in FY17.
  - Although these are only marginal changes, this trend should be carefully monitored to ensure access to sport and leisure is available to those of all economic backgrounds

In summary

Steven Ward, ukactive CEO says “Our sector now knows more about how customers interact with fitness facilities than ever before. For the first time we have insights including an analysis of who is visiting facilities, when, and what they are doing. Armed with this knowledge, operators are at last able to tailor their fitness offerings to meet the actual wants and needs of their customers".