BOSTON -- In 2007, the United States had 41.5 million health club members, according to the “2008 IHRSA Global Report: The State of the Health Club Industry” from the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA). That number is 1.2 million less than the 42.7 million members that IHRSA reported for 2006.

IHRSA says the 2007 decrease is a non-statistically significant change over 2006, 2005 and 2004. In 2004 and 2005, memberships were at 41.3 million, according to the Boston-based trade association for for-profit health clubs.

Preliminary numbers released this spring by IHRSA suggested memberships had increased 3 percent to 44.1 million members, but final numbers showed that memberships had actually decreased.

As of January 2008, the United States had 29,636 health clubs. This number includes for-profits and some nonprofits but no corporate, government/military and university facilities.

Despite the drop in members, industry revenues have continued to climb. In 2007, the U.S. health club industry revenues increased to $18.5 billion from $17.6 billion in 2006. The increase suggests that clubs are collecting more revenue per member than before, according to IHRSA.

Worldwide, there are 106.7 million members of health clubs (about the same as last year) and 108,059 health club locations, an increase from 98,594 locations reported last year for 2006.

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