Image: 12.1 per cent of Britons are gym members

The UK health and fitness industry increased its total market value by 1.4 per cent to £3.86bn during the year to March 2012, according to the 2012 State of the UK Fitness Industry report.

The figures mean that - since 2009 - the fitness industry's total market value is up 2.4 per cent, while there has been an increase of 3.6 per cent in membership numbers and a 1.8 per cent growth in the total number of facilities.

At the end of March 2012, 12.1 per cent of the UK population were registered as members of a health and fitness club or publicly-owned fitness facility - compared with 11.9 per cent in March 2011.

A total of 163 new public and private facilities opened during the year to 31 March 2012 - an increase on previous years (149 in 2011; 122 in 2010; and 114 openings in 2009).

Richard Hunt, chair of CLOA said that the results were "remarkable".

"Against the background of a sustained period of a shrinking UK economy a squeeze on lending, and local authority spending reductions, these headline figures reflect a truly resilient sector that has continued to invest, innovate and appreciate market change and opportunity in difficult times," he said.

"The fact that membership numbers continue to grow is encouraging for the sector ahead of the potential for a 2012 Olympic health and fitness legacy."

The State of the UK Fitness Industry Report is compiled each year by independent leisure market analysts, The Leisure Database Company.

Simon Johnson, chief executive of Business In Sport and Leisure (BISL), added: "I recognise how our members are contributing to what the last government was so fond of calling the 'Golden Decade of Sport'.

"Architects including S&P, many consultants and contractors of family firms like Wilmott Dixon; national governing bodies of swimming, tennis and rugby; leisure management contractors DC Leisure, Leisure Connection and SERCO; and the database specialists and authors of this report, The Leisure Database Company, are all working to help develop new sports and leisure sites and improve existing infrastructure.

"This in turn encourages more people to be more active using more and better facilities - a key policy aim and one which unites all of BISL's sports members. The government, via the Olympic bid team, promised a sporting legacy and our members have been working, often in wide effective partnerships, on the delivery."

To read more about the report, click here for the Leisure Database Company website.