Overview
- Germany’s 86,000 sports clubs counted about 29.3 million memberships as of January 1, 2025, up 2.18% year over year and surpassing last year’s record.
- Growth was strongest among children up to 14, with major gains in football, gymnastics, tennis and athletics, and a sharp relative jump in darts of 59%.
- Football remains the largest sport with more than eight million members, adding roughly 300,000, while sports such as bob and sledding, fencing, riding and judo declined; cricket lost over half its members.
- All 16 federal states reported increases, led by Hamburg at +4.56%, while North Rhine-Westphalia remains the largest by membership at 5,475,642.
- DOSB cites mounting pressure from deteriorating facilities and a shortage of volunteers and urges delivery of pledged measures including the Sportmilliarde, targeted facility investment and the Zukunftspakt Ehrenamt.