POOL FACILITIES
OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
PUBLIC SECTOR
As is evident from the data – with a total of 2,646 public sector swimming pools across the UK, but only 1,603 public sector centres that have pools – some operators have multiple pools. Only 2% have both indoor and outdoor pools, however.
The senior market is a particularly important area of growth: in the 12 months to 31 March 2025, we delivered 804,000 senior swims
40 %
2 % of public centres have both an indoor and an outdoor pool
of public centres have a main indoor pool and a teaching pool
of parental engagement. In the space of one year, we’ve had 4.6 million views by parents of their child’s progress, which means that on average, every parent is checking twice a month. And that matters, because we also know that when parents view their child’s progress, the child stays in our swim programme for longer. Another interesting stat: swimming lessons can be booked in our centres, but 97 per cent of our customers book online. What’s happening in the wider sector? It’s certainly a tough landscape, with utility costs an ongoing issue and now the challenge of National Insurance and minimum wage too. This has a knock-on impact on salary expectations throughout the company. At Everyone Active, we constantly look at energy efficiency and have benefited from the Swimming Pool Support Fund, working in partnership with local authorities to carry out
energy-saving work at 73 of our centres. This has included installing solar panels at 40 of them. And of course, we continually review our energy contracts. Moving forward, as customer habits and activity choices continue to change, the sector must keep innovating to attract new people to swimming. Smart programming is key. At Everyone Active, we constantly monitor usage stats and act quickly to replace under-performing sessions; we have a strategic lead for aquatics and reviewing pool timetables is a big part of what they do, understanding what is and isn’t being used and acting on this information. Finally, the sector must recognise that alongside swim lessons and casual swimming, we have to keep innovating and evolving our programming to even better support local authorities’ broader health strategies. We must ask ourselves: How can we best use our pools to address inequalities and help reduce the burden of ill health?
% of centres with a main pool
90 % of public centres with a pool have a main indoor pool (≥15m) 77 % have a main indoor pool that is ≥25m 2 % have a main indoor pool that is ≥50m
100%
90%
75%
50%
25%
10%
0%
Main pool
No main pool
% of centres with a teaching pool
100%
37 % of public centres with a pool have a teaching pool (<15m) 31 % have a teaching pool that is ≥10m
75%
63%
50%
37%
25%
0%
Teaching pool
No teaching pool
% of centres with an outdoor pool
7 % of public centres with a pool have an outdoor pool 6 % have an outdoor pool that is ≥20
100%
93%
75%
50%
25%
7%
0%
Outdoor pool
No outdoor pool
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STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2023 STATE OF THE UK SWIMMING INDUSTRY REPORT 2025
STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2023
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STATE OF THE UK SWIMMING INDUSTRY REPORT 2025
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