Water Sport Market Report: Participation Rate for Scuba Diving, Snorkeling & Related Water Sports
Scuba diving participation rate compared to snorkeling, swimming, surfing & stand-up paddling in the USA.
Scuba diving is increasingly a casual activity done during a vacation that includes many other activities. Baby boomers were “all in” and went to dive resorts offering nothing but scuba diving. The younger generations are not that committed. Scuba diving is just one thing they do in-between other activities.
This has a considerable impact on dive businesses. For instance, traditional dive resorts and liveaboards should retool themselves to be more than scuba diving destinations. Meanwhile, there is downward pressure on the sale of dive gear since core divers were the ones most likely to buy a full set of scuba diving equipment. We should probably plan for lower sale numbers of hard goods like regulators and BCDs and actively promote gear that people can more easily travel with, like personal dive computers and wetsuits.
This post is part of our Dive Industry Compass series by the Business of Diving Institute and Darcy Kieran, author of:
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The participation rate in scuba diving among the American population is one set of data we can rely on.
We are severely lacking scuba diving industry statistics and even more, reliable scuba market data. We are not sure where the dropout rate stands. We can only estimate the size of the dive industry. But we know the scuba diving participation rate in the USA because it’s part of an extensive study done annually by the SFIA (Sports and Fitness Industry Association) in their Topline Participation Report and by the OIA (Outdoor Industry Association) in their annual outdoor participation report.
We will examine participation rates for scuba diving, obviously, but also for snorkeling and swimming since these are activities with which dive operators and dive gear manufacturers generate revenues. Unfortunately, SFIA does not survey freediving or surface-supplied air (tankless) diving, and it does not make a distinction for tech diving.
Then, we will examine the participation rate in two adjacent water activities encountered in numerous dive centers: stand-up paddling and surfing. Finally, for the sake of it, we’ll compare with the participation rate for golfing.
The SFIA annual participation rates are pretty accurate because they are the results of a random survey of the general population. We will never get a truly precise determination of the size of the dive industry until we do the same, as discussed in How To Accurately Measure The Market Size of The Scuba Diving Industry.
In the meantime, if you are interested in scuba diving market statistics and are on a limited budget, cancel your DEMA membership and join the SFIA. You will get much more valuable market information!
Core & Casual Participants
SFIA provides us with participation rates for “core” and “casual” scuba divers, which is vital information for dive gear manufacturers and travel operators. Core divers typically buy more gear and take more dive trips than casual ones.
Here are the definitions used by SFIA, which are the same we’re using in our strategic analysis of the dive industry:
- Casual: a scuba diver who went diving 1 to 7 times that year
- Core: a scuba diver who went diving 8 or more times that year
Water Sports Participation
To put water sports in perspective, here are the participation rates by Americans aged 6+ in various categories of activities in 2023.
- Fitness Sports: 68%
- Outdoor Sports: 57%
- Individual Sports: 42%
- Team Sports: 26%
- Racquet Sports: 18%
- Water Sports: 16%
- Winter Sports: 10%
For the SFIA, “outdoor sports” include water sports even though water sports are also reported separately.
Every category experienced growth in participation in 2023.
Scuba Diving Participation
3 million participants represent about 1% of the 6+ American population.
In the USA, scuba diving had a good year in 2023, with growth even when compared to pre-pandemic levels. This is something we also observed in our State of The Dive Industry (SOTI) market report.
Western Europe also had a good 2023 year, but it was not the case in China and Asia-Pacific. Therefore, we cannot use American market data to extrapolate to the rest of the world.
However, the more data points we have from various markets around the world, the more accurate our estimates on the size of the dive industry become.
An essential factor to note here is that growth in scuba diving comes mainly from casual divers.
Casual participation in scuba diving in 2023 was the best year since 2015 and the second-best year of the last 10 years. Meanwhile, participation by core divers remained lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Overall, scuba diving participation grew by 1.8% on average annual growth (AAG) over a 5-year period. However, casual participation grew by 2.7%, while core participation shrank by 0.7% over the same period.
Scuba diving is not the only activity in which casual participation is on the rise while core participation is on the decline. In sailing, for instance, casual participation was up 4.1% (5-Year AAG) in 2023, while core participation was down 3.2%.
However, some water activities, like surfing, are experiencing tremendous growth in both casual and core participants. We will review these below.
Snorkeling Participation
Snorkeling is on the decline with the following annual average 5-year growth rates
- Overall: -0.8%
- Casual: -0.7%
- Core: -1.2%
The snorkeling decline is not due to the pandemic. In fact, there was a slight bump up during 2020. But the big drop started in 2018, two years before the pandemic.
In absolute numbers, there are still more than twice the number of snorkelers than scuba divers. Therefore, dive retailers and manufacturers can still count on snorkeling sales, while dive boat operators can still successfully fill boats for snorkeling tours. But it’s not a sector with promising growth at the moment.
Otherwise, snorkeling is even more a casual activity, with 81% of the participants being casual in 2023, while 78% of scuba divers were casual participants.
You will find more information about snorkelers in our socio-demographic profile of snorkelers.
Swimming Participation
Many dive shops and manufacturers sell swim equipment, and a few dive centers offer swim lessons.
However, the data we have here is specifically about people participating in swimming for fitness purposes. It can still serve as a data reference point.
Swimming for fitness is growing at a slow pace of 0.6% (5-Year AAG), but the number of participants is nine times that of scuba divers.
However, what is more promising is that swimming for fitness is an aspirational activity among inactive people of every age group and every income level, while scuba diving and snorkeling are on none.
Stand-Up Paddling Participation
Stand-up paddling (SUP) has steadily grown yearly, and the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t stop it.
If you operate a dive shop and you haven’t looked at SUP yet, you probably should. And if you operate a dive site, stand-up paddling could be an exciting activity during surface intervals or for spouses who are not scuba diving.
In Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida, we regularly see divers paddling to the reef from shore on a stand-up paddleboard and then towing it with a dive flag on it. My friends at BLU3, a manufacturer of surface-supplied air diving equipment, introduced me to this technique, and I love it!
Surfing Participation
Numerous dive centers carry surfing products. In the USA, we especially see such a combo in California and on the mid-Atlantic coast of Florida. Dive’n’Surf is quite famous for it in Redondo Beach, California.
Surfing is a pandemic success story. It simply exploded in 2020! After that, it came back down to earth in 2021 and 2022. Yet, surfing currently shows a 5-year annual average growth rate (AAR) of 7.4%. I know several dive gear manufacturers and dive centers who would love such an increase in sales.
Golfing Participation
The dive industry is often compared to golfing because it has traditionally been a white baby boomer activity. So, let’s see if golfing experienced the same declining or soft growth years as scuba diving.
Golf has been growing steadily since 2018, with a 34% jump from 2018 to 2023.
So, yes, it is possible for a traditional “white baby boomer” activity to change and grow. Golfing re-invented itself a few years back, and it is paying off.
The dive industry urgently needs to get back to the drawing board and change both its business model and marketing strategies.
We look at scuba diving participation rates by race, age group, and gender in our analysis of the socio-demographic profile of a scuba diver.
Have a look at more scuba diving market research, surveys, reports & statistics in Your Dive Industry Compass.
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Blueprints 4.0: A Healthier Business Model
Scuba Diving Industry Structure, Competitive Analysis, Business Models & Strategies for Growth With The New Scuba Diver
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