England’s public leisure centres create £1.82bn of social value each year

England’s 1,419 public leisure centres generated an estimated social value of £3.63bn between April 2023 and March 2025 – giving an annual figure of around £1.815bn.

The figure comes from the latest Moving Communities report, by Sport England and 4Global, which also shows that inequalities in accessing facilities are narrowing. The report utilises participation data and insights from 563 facilities across England.

Participation in physical activity among those living in the most deprived areas (IMD 1-2) in England grew by 0.5%, a modest but statistically significant amount. However, the percentage of people who are classed as active among the group remains low at 16%, compared to 24% from the least deprived areas (IMD 9-10). Women now make up 53% of users – up from 52% when compared to last year’s report. However, only 61% of women do more than 150 minutes of activity a week, compared to 66% of men.

Quality standards among facilities remain high, with 82% of facilities rated “very good” or “excellent”

Quality standards among facilities remain high, with 82% of facilities rated “very good” or “excellent” in Quest assessments (up from 66%).

Overall, the report signals a more mature, data-driven and socially valuable public leisure system that has moved from ‘recovery mode’ post-pandemic, into a more stable period of ‘resilient delivery’. This is illustrated by a stabilising of the average number of unique users per site, up by less than 1% to 14,166.

Lisa Dodd-Mayne, Sport England’s executive director of place, welcomed the results from the report, but acknowledged there are still areas for improvement.