Yoga class attendance statistics show a broad difference between trying yoga during a year and attending group classes regularly. In 2022, 16.9% of U.S. adults practiced yoga during the previous 12 months, either in a class or on their own. A separate 2019 survey found that 25% of Americans practiced group yoga at least once a week, while 20% practiced yoga independently at least weekly. These figures describe different populations, dates, and definitions, so they are best read as complementary indicators rather than one continuous trend.
Contents
- U.S. yoga participation and past-year attendance
- Weekly class attendance and practice time
- Who practices yoga
- Yoga’s reach and household participation
- Why people attend yoga
- Meditation as part of yoga practice
- Yoga and physical pain
U.S. yoga participation and past-year attendance
The most recent national participation figures in this dataset come from the National Center for Health Statistics. The NCHS Data Brief No. 501, covering 2022, measured whether adults age 18 and older had practiced yoga during the previous 12 months. The question included yoga practiced in a class and yoga practiced independently; it was not a class-only attendance rate.
Overall, 16.9% of U.S. adults practiced yoga during that 12-month period. The adult gender figures were 10.3% for men and 23.3% for women. These results indicate that past-year participation was reported by nearly one in six adults overall, with a higher reported participation rate among women than men.
Age was also associated with participation. In 2022, 21.3% of adults ages 18–44 practiced yoga during the previous year. The rate was 14.1% among adults ages 45–64 and 8.0% among adults age 65 and older. Because these are annual participation measures, they do not show how many classes a participant attended or whether the practice was occasional or weekly.
The same 2022 NCHS tables reported differences by race and ethnicity. Yoga participation was 22.5% among Asian non-Hispanic adults, 19.3% among White non-Hispanic adults, 15.7% among adults of other or multiple non-Hispanic races, 12.6% among Black non-Hispanic adults, and 10.5% among Hispanic adults.
Family income was another measured difference. Participation was 10.4% among adults with family incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level, 14.0% among those with incomes from 200% to below 400% of the federal poverty level, and 23.0% among those at 400% or more of the federal poverty level. These figures describe reported participation in the previous year, not the price or availability of local classes.
Weekly class attendance and practice time
The 2019 MINDBODY Wellness Index: Fitness in America provides a more specific view of routine practice. In that survey, 25% of Americans currently practiced group yoga at least once a week. The corresponding share practicing yoga on their own at least once a week was 20%.
The survey also measured time rather than only frequency. Americans in the 2019 survey spent an average of 1.4 hours doing yoga per week. This average should not be treated as a typical class length or converted into a number of weekly classes, because the measure includes yoga activity and the survey distinguishes group and solo practice without supplying a class-duration figure here.
Fourteen percent of Americans in the same 2019 survey were interested in trying a yoga class. That estimate describes interest, not attendance. It can help separate potential demand from current participation: some people reported current weekly group practice, while another group expressed interest in trying a class.
Among women who participated in weekly group exercise in 2019, 30% practiced yoga. Among men who participated in weekly group exercise, 19% practiced yoga. These percentages use weekly group exercisers as the comparison group, so they should not be read as the share of all women or all men attending yoga classes.
The 2019 Mindbody age comparison reported yoga practice among 21% of people ages 18–25 and 26% of people ages 26–45. Since the supplied result does not give equivalent figures for every older age group in that survey, the comparison is limited to these two reported age bands.
Who practices yoga
The 2016 Yoga in America Study offers historical context on the size and composition of the U.S. yoga audience. Its practitioner definition was people who practiced yoga in a class setting during the prior six months and were not yoga teachers. That class-based definition differs from the 2022 NCHS measure, which included class and independent practice during the prior 12 months.
The Yoga Alliance summary of the 2016 Yoga in America Study estimated 36.7 million U.S. yoga practitioners in 2016, up from 20.4 million in 2012. The study reported that women represented 72% of practitioners and men represented 28%.
Its age distribution showed that adults ages 30–49 made up 43% of the practicing public. Adults age 50 or older represented 38%, while adults ages 18–29 represented 19%. These are shares of the 2016 practitioner population under that study’s definition, not attendance rates for individual studios or classes.
The study also reported about 10 million male yoga practitioners in 2016, up from about 4 million in 2012. It reported nearly 14 million practitioners over age 50, compared with about 4 million people age 55 and older in 2012. The age categories are not identical across the two comparison points, so the figures should be retained as the study presented them rather than treated as a precise like-for-like growth calculation.
Yoga’s reach and household participation
The 2016 study measured possible future participation as well as current practice. Thirty-four percent of Americans said they were somewhat or very likely to practice yoga in the next 12 months. The study translated that response into an estimate of 80 million Americans likely to try yoga for the first time.
This was a forecast-like intention estimate from 2016, not a count of people who later attended a class. It is useful for describing stated potential reach, but it should not be combined with the 36.7 million practitioner estimate as if both were attendance totals for the same period.
Yoga participation also appeared in family patterns. Thirty-seven percent of yoga practitioners in the 2016 study had children under age 18 who also practiced yoga. The result describes reported household participation among practitioners and does not establish that parents and children attended the same class, attended with the same frequency, or practiced during the same period.
Together, these historical results point to several ways to interpret yoga class attendance. A studio may attract regular group participants, people who alternate between classes and home practice, families with more than one practitioner, and people who are interested but have not yet attended. National surveys do not turn those groups into a single studio occupancy figure, but they do show why annual participation, weekly attendance, and interest should remain separate measures.
Why people attend yoga
The 2022 NCHS follow-up questions asked yoga practitioners about uses and goals. Among U.S. adults who practiced yoga, 80.0% used yoga to restore overall health. The result was similar by gender: 79.6% among male practitioners and 80.2% among female practitioners.
The age-specific results were also close to the overall figure. Among practitioners ages 18–44, 78.4% used yoga to restore overall health. The share was 83.3% among practitioners ages 45–64 and 79.1% among practitioners age 65 and older.
The reported percentages varied by race and ethnicity among yoga practitioners. The share using yoga to restore overall health was 75.6% among Asian non-Hispanic practitioners, 76.7% among Black non-Hispanic practitioners, 81.7% among White non-Hispanic practitioners, and 75.1% among Hispanic practitioners.
These results describe reasons reported by people who practiced yoga in 2022. They do not measure whether health restoration was the reason someone first enrolled, whether the goal came from a group class or home practice, or whether the participant achieved a particular health outcome.
Meditation as part of yoga practice
Meditation was part of yoga for 57.4% of U.S. adults who practiced yoga in 2022, according to the NCHS Data Brief No. 501. This measure helps distinguish physical attendance from the wider mindful-movement experience: a person counted as a yoga practitioner may also include meditation in the practice.
Among male yoga practitioners, 52.9% practiced meditation as part of yoga; the share was 59.3% among female practitioners. By age, meditation was reported by 62.0% of practitioners ages 18–44, 53.9% of those ages 45–64, and 49.1% of those age 65 and older.
The race and ethnicity figures were 56.7% among Asian non-Hispanic practitioners, 70.7% among Black non-Hispanic practitioners, 54.0% among White non-Hispanic practitioners, and 66.8% among Hispanic practitioners. These percentages are among yoga practitioners, not among all adults, and they do not indicate how often meditation occurred or how long it lasted.
Yoga and physical pain
Physical pain was another reported reason for yoga use in 2022. Overall, 28.8% of U.S. adults who practiced yoga used it to treat or manage physical pain. The corresponding shares were 31.8% among male practitioners and 27.5% among female practitioners.
By age, 27.9% of practitioners ages 18–44 used yoga to treat or manage physical pain. The share was 31.5% among practitioners ages 45–64 and 27.2% among those age 65 and older. These are self-reported use measures; they do not establish that yoga caused a change in pain or replace clinical guidance.
The reported race and ethnicity percentages were 21.1% among Asian non-Hispanic practitioners, 26.0% among Black non-Hispanic practitioners, 30.0% among White non-Hispanic practitioners, and 31.9% among Hispanic practitioners.
The most useful attendance picture is therefore layered: 16.9% of U.S. adults reported yoga during the previous year in the 2022 NCHS measure; 25% of Americans reported weekly group yoga in the 2019 Mindbody survey; and historical 2016 research estimated 36.7 million class-based practitioners. Each figure answers a different question about reach, routine attendance, or the size of the practicing audience.