The NFHS reported 8,415,684 participation entries nationwide, an increase of 149,440 from 2024-25. It was the fifth consecutive annual increase in the survey and another all-time high.

The figures show continued growth in reported involvement across school sports, but they also raise practical questions about whether local programs have enough fields, mats, coaches, officials, transportation and funding to support more teams and athletes.

Girls flag football leads the growth

Girls accounted for a record 3,654,589 reported participation entries, up 3.2% from the prior year. Boys also reached a record, with 4,761,095 entries.

Girls flag football grew 48.7%, from 68,847 entries in 2024-25 to 102,360 in 2025-26. The number of schools reporting the sport rose from 2,736 to 3,990.

The NFHS said 37 states will be sanctioning girls flag football or conducting independent or pilot programs by the following year. That does not mean the sport will be available under the same rules, facilities or funding conditions in every state. Programs may differ substantially by school system and state association.

Girls wrestling also continued to expand. Reported entries increased 19.9%, from 74,064 to 88,771, across 8,853 schools.

What the national total does — and does not — show

The NFHS total is a count of participation entries, not necessarily a count of unique student-athletes. A student who plays more than one sport may be represented more than once, and reporting practices can vary among state associations and schools.

That means the new high confirms higher reported participation in the survey, but the data alone cannot establish how much of the increase came from new students, students adding another sport, expanded school reporting or a combination of factors.

Other established sports remain major parts of the high school landscape. Volleyball, for example, exceeded 500,000 reported participation entries, according to the NFHS release.

Access may determine who benefits

The national growth comes alongside evidence that organized sports are valued but not equally accessible to all families. An August Associated Press–Ipsos poll found that 54% of parents of children entering grades K-12 in the 2026-27 school year said at least one child plays organized sports.

Participation was higher among households earning at least $100,000 a year than among lower-income households. The poll also found that 84% of sports parents identified scheduling and logistics as a major or minor household challenge. Other reported challenges included team or club fees at 73%, travel at 72% and equipment or uniform costs at 69%.

The poll surveyed 1,737 U.S. adults, including an oversample of 510 parents of K-12 children who participate in organized sports. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4.9 percentage points for that sports-parent subgroup, before accounting for additional uncertainty in smaller subgroups.

The poll measures youth sports broadly, including school, club and recreational programs. It is not a measurement of the NFHS high school sports population.

What to watch next

The next test will be whether more states move girls flag football from pilot or independent programs into regular sanctioned competition, and whether schools can add the staffing and facilities needed to sustain participation.

Families may see more opportunities, but local access will depend on whether a school offers the sport, has qualified coaches and officials, can provide transportation and equipment, and keeps participation costs manageable. The NFHS numbers show growth nationally; they do not by themselves establish equal access or compliance with any particular legal or funding standard.

Sources

• NFHS: 2025-26 high school sports participation release
• Ipsos: AP-Ipsos sports parents poll
• Associated Press: Higher-income families more likely to enroll kids in organized sports

A federal data brief released in July 2026 found that 56.7% of children ages 6 to 17—nearly 28 million young people—participated in a sports team or took sports lessons after school or on weekends during the prior year. The estimate covers combined 2023–2024 survey data.

The figures come from the National Survey of Children’s Health. The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau funds and directs the survey, which is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The income divide is the clearest finding

Participation increased with family income. Among children in families below 100% of the federal poverty threshold, 36.7% participated in organized sports. That compared with 74.1% among children in families at 400% or more of the threshold.

Those categories measure household income as a share of the federal poverty threshold for the family’s size. The brief gives a 2023 example in which the poverty threshold for a family of four with two children was $30,900.

The difference between the two groups was 37.4 percentage points. The federal data show a substantial relationship between household income and sports participation, but they do not prove that cost alone caused the gap. The survey is observational and cross-sectional.

Why another national number is also circulating

Project Play, an initiative of the Aspen Institute, reported a separate annual estimate of 58% for 2024. That number should not be treated as interchangeable with the federal brief’s 56.7% estimate because the analyses use different reporting periods and presentations.

Project Play said its 2024 estimate was close to the 58.2% participation rate recorded in 2016–17. That earlier figure is used as the baseline for the federal Healthy People 2030 goal of reaching 63% participation by 2030.

The 63% figure is a public-health goal, not a law, funding requirement or achieved national result. Moving toward it will require expanding access, not only increasing participation among families who can already afford organized sports.

Families are paying more than registration fees

Household costs help explain why access is a national concern, although the available spending figures are survey-based estimates rather than a government price index or a universal cost for every child.

Kiplinger reported that a parent survey conducted by the Aspen Institute, Utah State University and Louisiana Tech University found families spent an average of $1,016 on one child’s primary sport in 2024—an increase of 46% from 2019. The report also cited an average of $475 in additional spending on other sports and activities.

Those costs can extend beyond a basic recreation-league fee to equipment, travel, tournaments, private coaching, lodging, technology platforms and other add-ons. Before enrolling, parents can ask which fees are required and which are optional, including travel, training, tournament, hotel, streaming and platform charges.

Why Congress is examining the youth-sports business

On June 30, 2026, the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education held a hearing on private equity’s role in the commercialization of American youth sports.

The hearing examined rising costs, consolidation, private investment and access to community-based programs. Statements about particular industry practices made during the hearing were claims presented for examination, not findings established by the hearing itself.

The event was an oversight discussion, not the enactment of a new federal youth-sports rule or funding program. The broader policy question is whether investment and organized competition expand opportunity or leave families with fewer affordable choices.

What the data can—and cannot—show

The federal brief found that children who participated in sports were more likely than nonparticipants to meet physical-activity guidelines and were also more likely to report certain healthy behaviors. It found lower reported rates of some health conditions among participants as well.

Those findings describe associations, not proof that sports participation caused better health, behavior or mental-health outcomes. The brief cautions that cross-sectional data cannot establish the direction of the relationships or causality; for example, a health condition could also make participation less likely.

For families, the practical takeaway is straightforward: youth sports participation is recovering nationally, but access is not recovering equally. Lower-cost school, parks, nonprofit and community-league pathways will be important if the United States is to move from a rebound in participation toward the 63% national goal.

Sources

• HRSA youth sports participation data brief
• Project Play 2024 participation analysis
• House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing record
• Kiplinger youth-sports spending report