Total number of badminton players in the world

[bthompson]

Does anybody have any 'official' sources of information where I can find out the total number of badminton players in the world, casual or otherwise?

[c5093780]

I don't think there is an official listing of the number of players in the world.

Since any National Association's voting rights at the IBF AGM relates to the number of players affiliated into that NA, the IBF should have a rough idea.

However, this does still not include players that play in non-affiliated organisations. In my country there are at least five of these organisations with a few thousand players in total. In other countries there could be a similar situation.

[Jonathan Phillips]

There are around ‘One Billion’ badminton players in the world according to Andrew Ryan at the International Badminton Federation (IBF). Quite a significant number!

Maybe, one of the largest niche segments for any discipline or activity, sport or otherwise. Millions of these play at a competitive level taking part in at least several matches per week.

In major badminton playing nations such as Malaysia and Indonesia…1 in every 3 people play badminton. This includes both adults and children with the sport having greater coverage than sports such as football, covering both sexes and all age groups.

Malaysia doesn’t have a set badminton season they play the whole year through.

The average person will play about three to four times a week. More serious players five to six times a week with two sessions on some days. One session can last for two to three hours.

Badminton is now played by almost 15% of the UK population, making a total of 7.1 million adult badminton players. Badminton remains a middle-class sport, with regular participation at 9% amongst ABCs, compared with a national average of 5%.

Global Figures

1 China - 307,461 - 18%
2 Germany - 234,282 - 14%
3 Japan - 138,178 - 8%
4 Denmark - 122,470 - 7%
5 Indonesia - 110,000 - 6%
6 Netherlands - 71,030 - 4%
7 Chinese Taipei - 61,000 - 4%
8 Malaysia - 60,000 - 3%
9 France - 59,836 - 3%
10 Korea - 54,800 - 3%

This chart gives an indication of the major badminton playing countries. These figures represent people who are officially affiliated to their national body. This remains a very small percentage of the total number of players who participate in the sport. We can also see that the top ten countries account for only 70% of the total numbers. The other 30% is made up from 136 other nations.

Many of these nations are expanding a 100% year-on-year increase in numbers at the moment. Source: International Badminton Federation

[Kelvin]

I saw Jonathan has posted some stats on this.
however... Can that be truly an accurate number at all?
I know it's an estimate, but wow!
that's a lot of fans.
However here in Canada, since I see many hundreds, and even thousands of players across the country playing and flooding into gymnasiums, and they have not registered with the organizations, I dont think we can truly grasp the scope of how many people play this sport, both on a recreational basis, and also on a competitive-professional basis.
If only we could get an accurate count.
Then perhaps IBF would be willing to try to put more $$$ into promoting the sport within north america, or somehow try to attract the big sponsors eg. Nike

To me what North America needs is a Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan of badminton to capture the attention of the sports enthusiast public.
Either that, or if people from Europe or Asia decided they wanted to help promote badminton in North America, they could move here, if they knew they could actually make a living helping the sport here.

Heck most people in north america, still think it's a backyard out door grass game. ( I might add, that this type of training is actually quite interesting.)
Anyways, thanks for the stats their Jonathan.

[richard murray]

totaly agree

[Dimo]

"Heck most people in north america, still think it's a backyard out door grass game."

It isn't so different in the UK, Kelvin. Tell some people you play badminton and they get quaint visions of playing on a manicured English lawn, with polite intervals of lemonade and cucumber sandwiches...or playing ping pong with a plastic shuttle on a beach. Actually, some leagues in the UK still use plastic shuttles! As a Canadian citizen myself I hope to be back in Canada before too long. By then maybe badminton won't be the poor relative of tennis. Hah...some hope.