Where sports, fitness & leisure is growing in the UK
2,964 sports, fitness & leisure branded outlets across 29 brands are tracked in the UK in the November 2026 release. Birmingham has the most, with 41, or 0.3 per 10,000 residents; the top 25 local areas together hold 663 (23% of outlets with a mapped local area). The largest like-for-like net gain since the previous release is in Westminster (+2).
Which local areas have the most sports, fitness & leisure outlets?
| # | Local area | Outlets | Brands present | Per 10,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | 41 | 16: PureGym, JD Sports, Sports Direct, Anytime Fitness, Footasylum | 0.3 |
| 2 | Westminster | 40 | 19: Everyone Active, lululemon, PureGym, Curzon, Everyman Cinemas | 1.9 |
| 3 | Leeds | 39 | 15: PureGym, JD Sports, Sports Direct, JD Gyms, Footasylum | 0.5 |
| 4 | Sheffield | 33 | 12: Everyone Active, JD Sports, PureGym, Sports Direct, JD Gyms | 0.6 |
| 5 | Wandsworth | 32 | 12: Places Leisure, Anytime Fitness, F45 Training, Nuffield Health, Energie Fitness | 0.9 |
| 6 | Glasgow City | 31 | 16: JD Sports, PureGym, Sports Direct, Footasylum, Foot Locker | - |
| 7 | Liverpool | 29 | 16: JD Gyms, JD Sports, Footasylum, PureGym, Everlast Gyms | 0.6 |
| 8 | Manchester | 29 | 15: PureGym, JD Sports, Sports Direct, JD Gyms, Nike | 0.5 |
| 9 | City of Edinburgh | 28 | 14: PureGym, JD Sports, Nuffield Health, David Lloyd, JD Gyms | - |
| 10 | ONS area E06000065 | 28 | 10: PureGym, Everyone Active, Sports Direct, Cotswold Outdoor, Everyman Cinemas | 0.4 |
| 11 | Ealing | 27 | 11: Everyone Active, PureGym, Anytime Fitness, David Lloyd, JD Sports | 0.7 |
| 12 | ONS area E06000066 | 27 | 9: PureGym, Everyone Active, Sports Direct, Anytime Fitness, Hollywood Bowl | 0.5 |
| 13 | Camden | 25 | 12: PureGym, Anytime Fitness, Everyman Cinemas, Curzon, F45 Training | 1.2 |
| 14 | Buckinghamshire | 24 | 13: Anytime Fitness, Everyone Active, Places Leisure, Everyman Cinemas, JD Sports | 0.4 |
| 15 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 23 | 11: Sports Direct, PureGym, JD Sports, Hollywood Bowl, Snap Fitness | 0.6 |
| 16 | Bristol, City of | 23 | 12: Everyone Active, PureGym, Sports Direct, JD Sports, Snap Fitness | 0.5 |
| 17 | Tower Hamlets | 23 | 10: PureGym, Anytime Fitness, F45 Training, JD Sports, lululemon | 0.7 |
| 18 | Barnet | 22 | 11: PureGym, Anytime Fitness, JD Sports, David Lloyd, Nuffield Health | 0.5 |
| 19 | Greenwich | 22 | 12: PureGym, Sports Direct, Anytime Fitness, JD Sports, Snap Fitness | 0.7 |
| 20 | Cardiff | 20 | 12: PureGym, Sports Direct, Hollywood Bowl, JD Gyms, JD Sports | 0.5 |
| 21 | Islington | 20 | 10: F45 Training, Energie Fitness, PureGym, Anytime Fitness, JD Sports | 0.9 |
| 22 | Kingston upon Thames | 20 | 13: Places Leisure, Anytime Fitness, F45 Training, PureGym, Cotswold Outdoor | 1.2 |
| 23 | Milton Keynes | 19 | 15: PureGym, JD Sports, Sports Direct, Anytime Fitness, Cotswold Outdoor | 0.6 |
| 24 | North Northamptonshire | 19 | 10: Anytime Fitness, JD Sports, PureGym, Sports Direct, Places Leisure | 0.5 |
| 25 | ONS area E06000063 | 19 | 10: Everyone Active, Sports Direct, JD Sports, Cotswold Outdoor, Everlast Gyms | 0.7 |
Local areas are local authority districts. Brands present shows how many brands have an outlet there and the five with the most.
Which local areas added the most sports, fitness & leisure outlets?
| # | Local area | Net change | Previous release | This release | All outlets now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Westminster | +2 | 35 | 37 | 40 |
| 2 | ONS area E06000065 | +2 | 26 | 28 | 28 |
| 3 | Lambeth | +2 | 16 | 18 | 18 |
| 4 | Wokingham | +2 | 12 | 14 | 14 |
| 5 | West Lothian | +2 | 9 | 11 | 11 |
| 6 | Sheffield | +1 | 32 | 33 | 33 |
| 7 | ONS area E06000066 | +1 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 8 | Camden | +1 | 22 | 23 | 25 |
| 9 | Islington | +1 | 19 | 20 | 20 |
| 10 | Southwark | +1 | 16 | 17 | 17 |
| 11 | Bromley | +1 | 15 | 16 | 16 |
| 12 | Cheshire West and Chester | +1 | 14 | 15 | 15 |
| 13 | Haringey | +1 | 14 | 15 | 15 |
| 14 | Hounslow | +1 | 14 | 15 | 15 |
| 15 | Middlesbrough | +1 | 12 | 13 | 13 |
Net change in outlets for brands present in both releases, for local areas with at least 5 outlets in the sector. 2 brands in this sector first appear in this release and are left out of the growth table, so that adding a brand to the data is never counted as an area growing.
How these figures are made
Counts are h3hex's own store-by-store record of each brand's published UK locations for the brands listed in the Sports, fitness & leisure sector of the h3hex data store, November 2026 release (scrape window 30 Oct - 3 Nov 2026), page built 2026-11-06. Closed, pre-opening and head-office records are left out. 65 outlets with no mappable postcode are counted in the totals but not in the local-area tables. 4 districts created in 2023 are shown by their ONS code because the postcode lookup used here carries no name for them. Net change compares this release with the 29 October 2026 edition of the same dataset and reflects openings and closures as well as improved coverage of each brand's own locator. Resident population is Census 2021 usual-resident population by output area, summed to local authority district through the ONS postcode-to-output-area lookup (May 2024). The population table does not join to the lookup for districts in Northern Ireland and Scotland, so outlets per 10,000 residents is shown as - for them.
Use the data
Prospect site reports assess a single address against these brands, and the data store sells the sports, fitness & leisure store lists brand by brand or as a sector bundle.