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More kids than ever are participating in youth sports in the U.S., and golf and tennis are seeing the biggest influxes of players.
A new report from the Aspen Institute found that between 2019 and 2025, tennis participation jumped by 72% among kids ages 6–12 and by 46% for those ages 13–17, according to Aspen, which used data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, the U.S. Tennis Association, and the National Golf Foundation, and regularly tracks growth in youth sports. Participation in tennis among all ages has grown for seven consecutive years.
Meanwhile, golf participation increased by 55% among youth ages 6–12 and 73% among ages 13–17 from 2019 to 2025. Golf surged during the pandemic and has sustained that growth through efforts to redefine how people first experience the sport.
Over the same period, flag football participation rose, posting a six-year increase of 26% among kids ages 6–12 and staying flat among teens ages 13–17. Youth tackle football declined 7% for ages 6–12 and declined 3% for ages 13–17, according to Aspen. Other sports—including baseball, ice hockey, and track and field—have seen declines over the same period.
Participation in tennis among all ages has grown for seven consecutive years, even with, or perhaps aided by, the rise of pickleball, Aspen wrote. Kids aged 6–12 playing tennis increased by 3.4% in 2025 from the year prior, and 3.1% for those aged 13–17, according to a February report from the USTA on growth of the sport.
The golf boom reflects the broader population’s growing interest in the sport over the past five to six years. Every year from 2020 through 2025, more than three million Americans tried the on-course game for the first time, according to the National Golf Foundation. “That’s six consecutive years the industry has eclipsed a mark it had never reached prior to the pandemic,” NGF said in an August report. Roughly one in four beginners becomes a committed golfer, the group says.
Pandemic Boost
The pandemic was a big turning point for the sport, long viewed as the domain of older, wealthy people—and mostly men. But the pandemic-era shutdown pushed Americans to take up physical and social activities outside that were compatible with remote work.
To accommodate the influx, many golf courses adjusted from 18 holes to shorter rounds, recognizing that not everyone wants to play for many hours.
Night golf gained traction with par-3 courses and music playing to attract younger players. “Putting courses emerged for those interested in only their short game,” the Aspen report says. “And technology has fueled interest, such as indoor golf simulators, tracer technology on driving ranges showing how far and fast a ball was hit, and venues like Topgolf and PopStroke offering informal golf games using tech.”
More young people are not only getting involved in golf, but they’re repeat players, says Steven Martin, chief marketing officer at Youth on Course, a nonprofit that works to expand access to golf for kids. “It’s one thing to introduce a kid to the game, but another to give them the chance to make it part of their life. Youth on Course, which provides kids with rounds of golf for $5 or less at thousands of courses, saw its 2025 membership grow 59% vs. 2024 to 394,000 young people, and has surpassed 450,000 members for 2026. “The interest is there,” Martin tells Front Office Sports.
Golf’s rise can also be attributed, in part, to a shift in the way it is viewed in the wider culture. Netflix’s PGA Tour docuseries Full Swing released its fourth season earlier this year, while The Hawk starring Will Ferrell debuted this year, and Stick starring Owen Wilson on Apple TV will release its second season next week. And LeBron James recently joined the YouTube golf craze by launching his own channel focused on golf content.
Golf’s popularity is growing abroad too. A June report by the R&A—the governing body for golf outside of the U.S. and Mexico—noted a 6% rise in juniors (aged 6–17) playing golf in all its forms worldwide outside of the USA and Mexico in 2025 from the year before. Europe has the highest total junior participation, with 19.9 million golfers.
In 2021, coming out of COVID, 49% of youth ages 6–17 played organized sports, according to federal government data. By 2024, the figure rose to 58%, according to Aspen, whose goal is to increase access to and participation in youth sports.
The overall increase in youth sports participation—which reached its highest level in 12 years—comes amid a growing affordability problem. Fewer kids aged 6–12 from households earning $25,000 or less participated in sports in 2025, while participation across every higher income bracket grew between 2% and 7% over the same period, the Aspen report said. Some blame private equity’s push into youth sports for turning what was once a community activity for kids into an opportunity to extract more money from families.
According to a previous Aspen Institute report, average annual costs for some sports exceed $1,000 and can reach into the five figures.
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