Flag Football Participation Growing as Opportunities for High School Girls Increasing 

 
CONTACT: 

Marty Maciaszek, Director of Communications 
mmaciaszek@nsga.org 
(847) 296-6742, ext. 1260 

DOWNERS GROVE, ILLINOIS (August 6, 2024) – Opportunities are increasing for high school girls to play flag football. Eleven state associations have officially sanctioned girls flag football with Illinois and Colorado adding the sport in 2024. Montana offers the sport as a pilot program. 

The National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) has tracked sports participation data for 40 years and figured the media and sports fans would be interested in how the numbers look for overall and girls participation in flag football. 

The NSGA Sports Participation in the U.S. Report shows overall flag football participation at 6.2 million and female participation at 1.6 million for 2023. Those were increases from 2022 by 10 percent for 5.7 million total participants and by 55 percent for 1 million female participants. The 2023 figures marked the second consecutive year in which overall participation increased, a welcome sight after experiencing declines during the Covid-19 affected years of 2020 and 2021. 

Participation in the all-important youth segment (ages 7-17) was 2.3 million, up slightly from 2.2 million in 2022. Encouragingly, the slight increase was driven by girls participation, which jumped from 419,000 in 2022 to 547,000 in 2023. This offset a slight decrease in boys participation during the same time frame. 

The number of frequent participants, defined as those participating for 50 or more days during the given year, reached 680,000 overall, up from 450,000 during the previous year. An increase in frequent participants is always a good sign for any sport because those who participate more frequently are also more likely to purchase new equipment, footwear and apparel as current products wear out or more technologically advanced ones are developed. 

The level of occasional participants, those playing 10 to 49 days during a given year, remained relatively flat compared to the previous year. The infrequent participant segment includes those who played 2-9 days and this segment saw an uptick in participation from 2.9 million to 3.2 million.  

In the coming years, it will be important to see if these infrequent participants start to play more often and therefore shift to the occasional and frequent categories. For this past year, there was such a shift for female participants as 46 percent fell into the occasional and frequent categories. By comparison, occasional and frequent participants represented 27 percent of female participation in 2022. 

One potentially positive aspect flag football has for potential growth is a lower-cost barrier to participation than some other team sports requiring more equipment to play. Data from NSGA’s Lifecycle Demographics report shows flag football participants from Low/Middle Income Families are twice as likely to be frequent participants than compared to the average population. 

More than 100 high schools in Illinois have committed to participate in the inaugural girls flag football state series in the fall of 2024 and nearly 40 more schools said they anticipate fielding a team in 2025, according to the Illinois High School Association (IHSA). The season is scheduled to begin the week of August 26 with state finals being held October 18-19. 

Colorado will have 70 schools participating in its inaugural girls flag football season, according to the Colorado High School Activities Association. A CHSAA spokesman said the sport is expected to grow quickly and have double the number of schools participating by 2030. 

NSGA’s official participation data in 2023 for flag football and 55 other sports and activities is available. The Sports Participation in the US report includes data on demographics and if you are interested in the most up-to-date figures on flag football or other sports, please contact Marty Maciaszek, NSGA Director of Communications, at mmaciaszek@nsga.org or (847) 296-6752, ext. 1260. 

About the National Sporting Goods Association 

Since 1929, the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) has been the leading voice and go-to resource for the sporting goods industry. NSGA helps the industry grow its businesses through research, advocacy and networking. For more information about membership or NSGA’s products and services, please visit www.nsga.org.