How many padel courts are there in the UK?

The LTA's latest figures (June 2026) report 1,825 padel courts across 551 venues in Great Britain, with around one million people now playing. Our directory independently verifies at least 1,590 operational courts across 479 UK venues — a checked, audited floor rather than an estimate. Last updated: 24 July 2026.

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The official benchmark

The national number to quote is the LTA's: 1,825 padel courts across 551 venues in Great Britain, published in June 2026 (LTA). LTA figures cover England, Scotland and Wales, so they leave out Northern Ireland. At the end of 2025 the same count stood at 1,553 courts (LTA and SEGRO announcement).

What we've verified ourselves

Alongside the official benchmark, we keep our own count. As at July 2026 we have checked at least 1,590 operational padel courts across 479 UK venues by hand.

Ours is deliberately the smaller number. It is a floor, and a subset of the country rather than a rival estimate of the national total: we only publish a court once we have seen evidence it exists and is open to play on, and 16 venues we have verified are still waiting on a confirmed court count, so they add nothing to the total yet.

Who's playing

Courts are only half the story — the demand side has moved even faster.

• Around 1,000,000 players — The LTA's June 2026 figures put roughly one million adults and juniors on court in Britain. (LTA, June 2026)
• 860,000 in 2025 — Up from about 400,000 in 2024 — the player base has roughly doubled year on year. (LTA, March 2026)
• 57% adult awareness — More than half of British adults now know what padel is, a share that barely registered five years ago. (LTA, March 2026)
• 10m+ want a go — The LTA estimates over ten million people are interested in trying padel, which is what keeps courts busy. (LTA, March 2026)

In practice that is why peak-time slots go so quickly: player numbers are roughly doubling year on year while court numbers grow by tens of percent. If you play, book early — and see what a court costs to hire.

How the UK compares

• Spain — More than 15,000 courts, and padel is a mainstream part of everyday sport rather than a novelty.
• Sweden — Peaked above 4,000 courts before a market correction in 2023–24 closed clubs that had over-expanded.
• United Kingdom — Still far behind both on courts per head, which is why new venues keep filling as soon as they open.

Sweden is the cautionary tale: a boom that ran ahead of demand, then a correction that closed clubs. Britain is nowhere near Spain's density, but the Swedish experience is worth reading before assuming growth is guaranteed — see our guide to what building a padel court actually costs.

What's in the pipeline

• £6m+ of LTA padel investment — Including £4.5m towards 80 new courts across 42 venues through the LTA and LTA Tennis Foundation. (LTA)
• At least £2.5m of government funding in 2026/27 — Earmarked for covered facilities so more courts stay playable through a British winter. (LTA and SEGRO announcement)
• 5% Quick Access Loans for venues — Open to venues that offer at least 15 hours of public access a week, which favours pay-and-play courts. (LTA)

Most of that money is aimed at covered and publicly bookable courts, which is exactly where the shortage bites hardest for casual players.

Padel court growth timeline

The LTA's historical series reports 763 courts for 2024; its SEGRO partnership announcement states 870 for the same period. We show the historical series and note the discrepancy.

That is 272 more courts, or 17.5% growth, in roughly six months — and around 27 times the 2019 base.

How we count

We check every venue by hand and only publish counts we have verified, so our number is a floor rather than a guess. In detail: our July 2026 figures come from a documented review completed on 20 July 2026, in which 47 pairs of look-alike listings were resolved to a single venue each, 22 venues with unusually high court counts were re-checked against real-world sources, and anything outside the UK was excluded. Small private, school and non-bookable sites are largely absent, so treat the total as our coverage rather than the national market. The official LTA benchmark and our verified subset measure different things, and we keep them separate on purpose.

Spotted a court we're missing? Add a venue and we'll check it, or read the full methodology.