The new key data study published annually by the DSSV (Employers' Association of German Fitness and Health Facilities) provides an overview of current developments in the fitness and health industry. This representative study of the market was conducted in cooperation with the auditing and consulting firm Deloitte and the German University of Prevention and Health Management (DHfPG). Here are the most important results of the "Key data of the German fitness industry 2019"!
Once again more members in fitness studios
Once again, more people were attracted to fitness training in 2018. As of the reporting date of December 31, 2018, German fitness and health facilities had 11.09 million members (previous year: 10.61 million) - which not only means a 4.5 percent increase in members, but also a new record! 13.4 percent of the total population are now members of a fitness studio. This makes fitness training the form of training with the highest number of members, ahead of football, gymnastics and tennis.
Industry turnover increases
The industry once again achieved record sales. At 5.33 billion euros (previous year: 5.20 billion euros), industry sales increased by 2.5 percent .
Number of fitness facilities grows
The number of fitness facilities rose to 9,343, an increase of 3.9 percent over the previous year. A total of 355 new facilities were counted. The largest growth was recorded by micro studios, whose number increased by 11.1 percent to 2,516 studios.
More employees in the fitness industry
As the number of fitness facilities grows, so does the number of employees, which increased by 2,500 to 212,400 employees working in the fitness and health industry in 2018. Nine out of ten fitness facilities employ primarily salaried employees. Stand-alone facilities averaged 8.3 permanent employees, chain facilities 6.6, and micro studios 1.1. Dual students are increasingly in demand. Almost half(49.4 percent) of all fitness facilities employ 2 to 9 dual students. In the meantime, one fifth of the employees in the industry are academics. Operators are also focusing on continuing education. 94.8 percent of all facilities provided further training for their employees in the year under review.
Companies still willing to invest
The willingness to invest remains high: more than 85 percent of all facilities plan to make investments in the coming year. Among chain stores, the figure is as high as 95 percent. It is striking that half of all fitness and health facilities want to invest in certification in accordance with DIN standard 33961. Across all facilities, the planned investment volume per facility amounts to 153,000 euros.
The high willingness to invest can be explained by the good economic situation prevailing in the industry. 86.7 percent of chain operators, 71.7 percent of micro studios and 62.1 percent of individual operators assess their current economic situation as "good" or "rather good".
EMS training continues to gain ground
Electromuscular stimulation is playing an increasingly important role in the industry. As of the reporting date, 1,205 pure EMS studios were counted in Germany, which is 141 new studios compared to the previous year. EMS facilities account for 12.9 percent of the total market. On average, 128 members train in one facility, and the EMS studios have a total of around 150,000 trainees. You can find out more about EMS training at EMS-TRAINING.de.
Other interesting key figures
→ average age of members in fitness facilities continues to rise: 40.8 years
→ The majority of members ( 55.5 percent ) are female.
→ Members train on average 1x per week in the gym
→ membership over 12 months is the most frequently offered contract term
→ average monthly fee for the entire sector (especially for chain operations) has fallen to 43.35 euros
Editorial fitnessmarkt.de (SIS)
Image source: DSSV
Published on: 15 April 2019