Barcelona sports enrolment hits record 212,136 as running boom grows

Barcelona’s municipal sports network has never had this many members. In September 2025, the city reached 212,136 registrations across its sports facilities, the highest figure in its history, and women accounted for 50.13% of users in the Centre Esportiu Municipal, or CEM, centers. By December, the CEMs still had 201,337 registered users, with women again making up 50.13% of the total.

The numbers point to something bigger than a one-off surge. The Ajuntament de Barcelona and Institut Barcelona Esports describe a city with a sporty, health-conscious profile that is younger and more female than before. Their 2022 sports habits survey found that 66.7% of adults in Barcelona do sport, 17.4 points above the 49% European average cited by Eurobarometer. The institute has been tracking those habits since 1989, with comparable studies in 1995, 1999, 2006, 2013, 2017 and 2022, giving the city a long-running picture of how exercise has moved into ordinary life.

That shift is visible not just in municipal gyms, but on the streets. Running has become one of Barcelona’s clearest mass-participation habits. The Zurich Marató Barcelona drew 27,000 registered runners in 2025, then the 2026 race sold out at the maximum 32,000 bibs months before the start line. The eDreams Mitja Marató Barcelona by Brooks also reached 30,000 participants in 2025. Those numbers say as much about the city’s daily rhythm as they do about race-day demand: training runs, recovery jogs and weekend mileage have become part of how many Barcelonans move through the city.

Barcelona’s response is to keep building. City sports officials link the record enrollment to a broader renewal and expansion plan for municipal facilities, including CEM La Marina. That matters because demand is no longer concentrated in elite clubs or special events; it is showing up in neighborhood centers, public programming and the race calendar all at once. Barcelona’s official sports messaging ties that momentum to the city’s long sporting tradition, and to the boost sport received from the 1992 Olympic Games.

The result is a city where fitness is no longer just growing. It is embedded in the way Barcelona lives, and the challenge now is whether the facilities, programming and race infrastructure can keep pace with the appetite they have helped create.