The Canary Islands Institute of Statistics (ISTAC) has released its annual compilation of sports statistics, revealing a significant 25.1% decrease in the number of registered sports clubs in the Canary Islands during 2025, totaling 2,807. This figure contrasts with a 5% increase in federated athlete licenses, which reached 200,809 in 2025, up from 191,742 in 2024.
Football remains the sport with the highest number of clubs, accounting for 14.2% of the total, which equates to 54,739 federated licenses (27.3% of the total. Following in terms of club numbers are disciplines such as mountain and climbing (199), cycling (153), padel (153), underwater activities (140), and basketball (105).
Regarding gender distribution, men continue to represent the majority of federated sports licenses, with 144,279 licenses, accounting for 71.8% of the total. Sports like billiards or bowling have exclusively male licenses. In other disciplines such as colombophilia, hunting, motorcycling, archery, or football, male participation exceeds 96%.
On the other hand, among sports with higher female participation are sports dance (90.5%), gymnastics (89%), skating (83.9%), equestrianism (78.8%), volleyball (71.7%), and handball (51.1%).
