Yoga participation in the United States varies substantially by sex, age, race and ethnicity, and household income. In 2022, 16.9% of U.S. adults age 18 and older practiced yoga during the previous 12 months, according to CDC NCHS Data Brief 501. Yoga Alliance reported 38.4 million American practitioners in its 2022 U.S. survey, while earlier studies show how the activity’s reach has expanded over time.
Contents
- Yoga participation by sex and age
- Race, ethnicity, and income
- Why people practice yoga
- Meditation and pain management
- The 2022 Yoga Alliance practitioner profile
- How yoga participation has changed
Yoga participation by sex and age
The CDC’s 2022 measure shows a clear difference between men and women. Among U.S. adults, 23.3% of women practiced yoga in the previous 12 months, compared with 10.3% of men. These are participation rates for the adult population, not the gender composition of yoga practitioners.
Age is also associated with participation. In 2022, 21.3% of adults ages 18–44 practiced yoga. The rate was 14.1% among adults ages 45–64 and 8.0% among adults age 65 and older. The figures describe whether adults in each age group practiced yoga, rather than the percentage distribution of all practitioners.
The difference between age groups is important when reading yoga audience statistics. A lower participation rate among adults 65 and older does not mean older adults are absent from yoga; it means a smaller share of that population reported practicing during the measured 12-month period.
Yoga Alliance’s 2022 U.S. survey describes the practitioner population differently. It reported that 74% of U.S. yoga practitioners were women and that the average age of practitioners was 39. These figures should not be directly substituted for the CDC participation rates: one describes the composition of practitioners, while the other measures participation within demographic groups.
Race, ethnicity, and income
CDC NCHS Data Brief 501 reported the following 2022 yoga participation rates among U.S. adults by race and ethnicity:
| Group | Adults who practiced yoga in the previous 12 months |
|---|---|
| Asian, non-Hispanic | 22.5% |
| White, non-Hispanic | 19.3% |
| Other and multiple races, non-Hispanic | 15.7% |
| Black, non-Hispanic | 12.6% |
| Hispanic | 10.5% |
These percentages are population-based rates. They differ from Yoga Alliance’s 2022 finding that 71% of U.S. yoga practitioners were White. The CDC figures ask how common yoga practice was within each population group; the Yoga Alliance figure describes the racial composition of practitioners in its survey.
Household income also corresponded with participation in 2022. Yoga was practiced by 10.4% of adults whose family income was below 200% of the federal poverty level. The rate was 16.3% among adults with family income from 200% to less than 400% of the federal poverty level and 23.0% among adults at 400% of the federal poverty level or more.
The income pattern is therefore a difference in participation rates, not a claim about why people practice. The CDC data show that participation was reported more often among adults in the highest income band than among adults below 200% of the federal poverty level.
Older research also found socioeconomic differences. In the 2002 NHIS study, yoga use prevalence was 10.5% among adults with a college education, compared with 3.4% among adults with less than a college education. Prevalence was 7.3% among adults with income of at least $65,000, compared with 3.0% among those with income below $19,999. Those thresholds and the measurement year are specific to the 2002 study and are not equivalent to the 2022 federal-poverty-level categories.
Why people practice yoga
The leading reported purpose in the 2022 CDC data was restoring overall health. Among adults who practiced yoga, 80.0% did so to restore overall health. The share was 79.6% among male practitioners and 80.2% among female practitioners.
Across age groups, 78.4% of practitioners ages 18–44 practiced yoga to restore overall health. The corresponding shares were 83.3% among practitioners ages 45–64 and 79.1% among practitioners age 65 and older.
The same purpose was reported by 81.7% of White non-Hispanic practitioners, 76.7% of Black non-Hispanic practitioners, 75.6% of Asian non-Hispanic practitioners, 79.5% of other and multiple-race non-Hispanic practitioners, and 75.1% of Hispanic practitioners.
Income differences in this purpose were relatively narrow. Among practitioners with family income below 200% of the federal poverty level, 80.2% practiced yoga to restore overall health. The figure was 78.9% among those in the 200% to less than 400% FPL group and 80.5% among those at 400% FPL or more.
Yoga Alliance reported a related but distinct motivation in its 2022 U.S. one-pager: 51% of U.S. practitioners started yoga to relieve stress. The same survey reported that 49% had had yoga recommended by a medical doctor or other health professional. “Started yoga to relieve stress” and “practiced yoga to restore overall health” measure different concepts, so they should not be treated as interchangeable percentages.
Meditation and pain management
Yoga practice can include meditation, but the CDC data show that this is not universal. In 2022, 57.4% of adults who practiced yoga also practiced meditation as part of yoga.
Among male yoga practitioners, 52.9% practiced meditation as part of yoga, compared with 59.3% of female practitioners. By age, the share was 62.0% among practitioners ages 18–44, 53.9% among those ages 45–64, and 49.1% among practitioners age 65 and older.
The race and ethnicity figures were 56.7% for Asian non-Hispanic practitioners, 70.7% for Black non-Hispanic practitioners, 54.0% for White non-Hispanic practitioners, 70.8% for other and multiple-race non-Hispanic practitioners, and 66.8% for Hispanic practitioners.
Income was also associated with meditation within the practitioner population. The share was 65.3% among practitioners with family income below 200% FPL, 56.7% among those at 200% to less than 400% FPL, and 55.7% among those at 400% FPL or more.
Pain management was reported less often than restoring overall health or meditation. Overall, 28.8% of adult yoga practitioners used yoga to treat or manage physical pain in 2022. The share was 31.8% among male practitioners and 27.5% among female practitioners. By age, it was 27.9% among practitioners ages 18–44, 31.5% among those ages 45–64, and 27.2% among those age 65 and older.
Among racial and ethnic groups, 21.1% of Asian non-Hispanic practitioners, 26.0% of Black non-Hispanic practitioners, 30.0% of White non-Hispanic practitioners, 25.0% of other and multiple-race non-Hispanic practitioners, and 31.9% of Hispanic practitioners used yoga to treat or manage pain.
Income differences were more pronounced for this purpose. The share was 37.8% among practitioners below 200% FPL, 32.8% among those at 200% to less than 400% FPL, and 25.4% among those at 400% FPL or more. These statistics describe reported use, not a clinical assessment of effectiveness.
The 2022 Yoga Alliance practitioner profile
Yoga Alliance’s 2022 Yoga in the World survey provides additional context about the U.S. yoga community. The survey used 11,020 total respondents across 10 countries. For the United States, it reported 38.4 million practitioners, 74% women, and an average practitioner age of 39.
Education and housing measures help describe the surveyed practitioner population. Yoga Alliance reported that 47% of U.S. practitioners had at least a college degree. It also reported that 54.8% of yoga practitioners owned homes, compared with 42.8% for the general population.
The survey also reported averages for other roles in the yoga sector. U.S. yoga teachers had an average age of 35, and U.S. studio owners had an average age of 36. At least a college degree was reported for 83% of yoga teachers and 83% of studio owners.
These role-based statistics should not be read as demographic characteristics of every yoga class. They describe the populations measured by Yoga Alliance and distinguish practitioners from teachers and studio owners.
How yoga participation has changed
Longitudinal figures show growth in reported yoga use, although the studies use different years and methods. A 2021 trend study reported that yoga prevalence among U.S. adults increased from 5.1% in 2002 to 13.7% in 2017. The same study estimated 10,386,456 yoga-using adults in 2002 and 32,761,194 in 2017.
The trend study described typical yoga users as young, non-Hispanic, single, White, female adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher and health insurance. It also found that younger age was the only sociodemographic or health-related factor whose yoga-use pattern changed significantly over time, with p < 0.001.
Yoga Alliance’s 2016 Yoga in America Study found more than 36 million Americans practiced yoga, up from 20.4 million in 2012. It reported that annual practitioner spending rose to $16 billion from $10 billion over the same four-year period.
The 2016 study reported that women represented 72% of practitioners and men 28%. It found that 37% of practitioners had children under 18 who also practiced yoga. By age, 30–49-year-olds made up 43% of the practicing public, people age 50 and older made up 38%, and adults ages 18–29 made up 19%. The study also said 74% of practitioners had been doing yoga for five years or fewer.
The earliest figures in this set come from the 2002 NHIS study, which estimated that 5.1% of the U.S. population used yoga for health, representing 10.4 million adults. Among yoga users that year, 76% were female, 85% were White, the mean age was 39.5 years, 48% had household income of at least $65,000, and 50% had a college education or more.
The 2002 study also reported the regional distribution of yoga users: 26% lived in the West, 27% in the Midwest, 24% in the South, and 23% in the Northeast. Its prevalence comparisons found yoga use among women at 7.4%, versus 2.5% among men; 6.1% among adults under 30, versus 1.2% among adults 65 or older; and 5.3% among White adults, versus 2.5% among Black adults.
Because these estimates span 2002, 2012, 2016, 2017, and 2022, they should be read as a historical sequence rather than one perfectly continuous series. Definitions, samples, and survey questions differ across sources. Even so, the figures consistently show that yoga has reached a larger U.S. audience over time, while participation remains uneven across demographic groups.