Employment linked to sport in Spain exceeds 250,000 workers for the first time

• According to the new edition of the Yearbook of Sports Statistics, published this Friday by the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, employment related to sport grew by 3.4% compared to last year. The increase since 2018 is almost 20%.

• There is also an increase in the number of companies engaged in sport and the number of sports clubs, as well as the expenditure of Spanish households for goods and services in this area, which reaches 6,326 million euros.

• Foreign tourists who visited Spain in 2024 for sports reasons are approaching one and a half million, generating an expenditure of more than 1.7 billion euros.

Madrid, 30 May 2025.- Employment linked to sport in Spain reached a record figure in 2024: 255,000 people, which represents an increase of 3.4% compared to the previous year and of almost 20 percentage points since 2018. This is reflected in the Yearbook of Sports Statistics 2025, published this Friday by the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports.

These data highlight the consolidation of employment growth in the sports sector, only interrupted during 2020 because of the pandemic. It accounts for 1.2% of total employment in Spain.

Regarding the profile of sports workers, there is a higher proportion of men (59.8%) than women (40.2%), although this difference has been slightly reduced in the last year.

Furthermore, most of these workers are between the ages of 16 and 35 and have higher than average rates of academic education (51.4 per cent, over 46.7 per cent of total employment in Spain).

The Yearbook of Sports Statistics 2025 also reflects an increase in the number of companies whose main economic activity is sports. It amounts to 43,829, 6.4% more than in 2023.

Most of them, 8 out of 10, are engaged in sports activities such as facilities management, sports club activities or gyms.

Household spending and international tourism linked to sport is growing

The expenditure of Spanish households on goods and services linked to sport reached 6,326 million euros in 2023, the last year analysed, which represents an increase of 3.1% compared to 2022.

The average expenditure per person stood at EUR 131.8, mainly devoted to recreational and sports services. Navarre, La Rioja, Aragón and the Basque Country were the Autonomous Communities with the highest average expenditure per person in sport.

One of the variables that has experienced the greatest growth has been international tourism linked to sport. More than 1.47 million foreign tourists visited our country in 2024 for mainly sports reasons, representing an increase of 14.5% over the previous year.

They generated an expenditure in our country of more than 1,770 million euros, some 220 million more than in 2023.

To this are added the 3.8 million Spaniards who made trips in our country for sports reasons. Adding national and international travelers, sports tourism in 2024 generated an associated expenditure of more than 3 billion euros.

Federative licences and sports education

According to the data of the last Yearbook, the total number of federated sports licenses is consolidated above 4.3 million, being the growth since 2018 of 11.6%.

In percentage terms, male licences account for 74.1 per cent and female licences account for 24.9 per cent of the total.

Catalonia, Andalusia, the Community of Madrid and the Valencian Community concentrate more than half of the sports licences.

By federation, and in terms of the number of licenses, soccer (29.2%), basketball (10.2%), hunting (7.6%), golf (7.1%) and mountain climbing (6.7%) stand out.

In addition, there is a growth in the number of sports clubs, which in 2024 was 78,690, a figure that exceeds 1,546 the previous year.

There is also an increase in the number of high-level athletes (DAN), which in 2024 has exceeded 6,000, with an increase of 5.2% over the previous year.

In addition, Spain’s records have gone from 534 in 2023 to 637 in 2024. Swimming, sport for the blind and halterophilia were the ones that recorded the most national scores.

For its part, in the academic year 2023-2024, the number of pupils enrolled in special sports education amounted to 12,004; those enrolled in professional training linked to sport exceeded 50,000 for the first time; and the number of pupils enrolled in university education - degree, master and doctorate - linked to sport also increased, reaching 27,000 people.

13th edition of the Yearbook of Sports Statistics

The Yearbook of Sports Statistics 2025, made by the General Subdirectorate of Statistics and Studies of the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, is the thirteenth edition of a study that collects a selection of the most relevant statistical results of the sports field from available statistical sources.

Among others, together with the statistics of the Higher Sports Council and the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, we can mention the Active Population Survey, the Central Business Directory (DIRCE), the Family Budget Survey, the Consumer Price Index Base 2021, the Foreign Trade Statistics of Spain, the Resident Tourism Survey (ETR/FAMILTUR), all these statistics prepared by the National Statistical Institute (INE); in addition to the data from the Ministry of Finance, Innovation and Social Function.

Full study available in: https://www.educacionfpydeportes.gob.es/servicios-al-ciudadano/estadisticas/deportes/anuario.html