Pickleball's Gender Gap By the Numbers: How the Sport Compares

Every sport has a gender gap. The question isn't whether one exists — it's how big it is and where it shows up.

We analyzed over a million pickleball players in the Tournament Pickle database to measure the gender gap across participation, skill ratings, elite representation, and geography. The result? Pickleball is more gender-balanced than most racket sports — but there are areas where the gap persists and even widens.

Here's what the data says.

The Participation Gap: 64% Men, 36% Women

Of the players in our database, roughly 55% are men and 30% are women. The remaining ~15% have no gender specified in their profile.

Excluding those unknown profiles — since they likely mirror the overall split — pickleball breaks down to roughly 64.4% men and 35.6% women.

Why is pickleball relatively balanced? A few factors stand out: the sport is less physically demanding than tennis (smaller court, underhand serve, lighter paddle), it has a strong social component that attracts recreational players of all backgrounds, and it exploded in popularity through community recreation centers that tend to draw diverse participants.

That said, 64/36 is not 50/50. Nearly two men play pickleball for every woman. And as we'll see, the gap behaves differently depending on what you measure.

The Rating Gap: Smaller Than You'd Think

The DUPR rating system gives us the best available measure of player skill across genders. Among rated doubles players:

Metric	Men	Women	Gap
Avg Doubles DUPR	3.407	3.146	0.261
Rated Players	~553K	~331K	—

A gap of 0.261 DUPR points is real, but it's relatively modest. Both men and women peak in the 3.0–3.5 range (solid intermediate level), and the distributions overlap heavily.

DUPR doubles rating distribution: men (green) vs women (purple), shown as % of each gender's rated players

The distribution chart reveals an interesting pattern: women are proportionally more concentrated in the 2.0–3.0 range (41.2% of women vs 25.8% of men), while men spread more evenly into the higher brackets. The peak for both genders is 3.0–3.5, but men's distribution has a longer tail to the right.

What does this mean in practice? If you randomly paired a male and female player, the man would be slightly higher-rated on average — but the difference is roughly half a skill bracket. At the recreational level where most pickleball is played, the gap barely matters.

The Elite Gap: Where It Widens

The small average gap hides a bigger story at the top of the rating scale. As you move up the DUPR ladder, the gender gap expands significantly:

DUPR Level	Men	% of Rated Men	Women	% of Rated Women
4.0+ (Advanced)	~92K	16.7%	~29K	8.6%
5.0+ (Elite/Pro)	~5,300	0.96%	~1,300	0.40%

This isn't unique to pickleball. Most sports see the gender gap widen at higher competitive levels — a combination of factors including physiological differences, years of experience, access to competitive training, and tournament participation rates. But it's worth noting that even at 4.0+, there are still nearly 29,000 women competing at an advanced level. That's a substantial talent pool.

Looking at the very top: there are roughly 5,300 men and 1,300 women rated 5.0+ across the country. Among those, the ultra-elite 5.5+ tier has fewer than 1,000 men and about 200 women. These are the players competing at or near the professional level, and the pipeline is thinner on the women's side.

For context on where you fit in, check out our breakdown of DUPR ratings by age group — the age dimension adds another layer to the story.

Gender Balance by State: Minnesota Leads, Texas Trails

The gender gap isn't uniform across the country. Among the 12 states with the most pickleball players, the percentage of women ranges from 33.8% to 39.5%:

Percentage of women among pickleball players in the 12 largest states by player count

State	% Women	Notes
Minnesota	39.5%	Most balanced major state
Arizona	39.0%	Strong retirement community presence
Ohio	37.4%
Illinois	36.3%
California	36.1%
North Carolina	36.0%
Virginia	35.2%
Florida	35.0%
Georgia	34.8%
New Jersey	34.6%
New York	33.9%
Texas	33.8%	Least balanced major state

A few observations:

• Minnesota stands out at 39.5% women — nearly 6 percentage points above Texas. The Midwest's strong community recreation infrastructure and park-and-rec culture likely play a role.
• Arizona at 39.0% makes sense given its large retirement community scene, where pickleball is a popular mixed-gender social activity.
• Texas and New York bring up the rear among major states. These large, diverse states have huge player populations but the gender balance skews more male than average.
• The spread is only 5.7 percentage points from top to bottom — suggesting the gender gap is fairly consistent nationwide, with modest regional variation.

How Pickleball Compares to Other Sports

Context matters. Here's how pickleball's gender balance stacks up against other popular participation sports:

Sport	Approx. % Female	Source
Running/Road Races	~40%	RunRepeat
Pickleball	~36%	Tournament Pickle (this analysis)
Tennis	~35%	TIA/USTA
Cycling	~30%	USA Cycling
Golf	~23%	National Golf Foundation

Pickleball sits right alongside tennis and ahead of golf and cycling. Given that pickleball is a much younger sport still in its growth phase, achieving this level of balance is notable. Most sports take decades to close gender gaps — pickleball is getting there faster.

What's Driving the Remaining Gap?

A 64/36 split doesn't happen by accident. Several factors likely contribute to the remaining gender imbalance:

1. The competitive pipeline

Men are disproportionately represented in competitive and tournament play. Our data comes from players who've registered for events or have DUPR ratings — a pool that skews competitive. The recreational pickleball population (the millions who play casually at parks and rec centers) is likely more gender-balanced than what tournament data captures.

2. Crossover from other racket sports

Many pickleball players come from tennis, racquetball, or table tennis — sports that already skew male. As pickleball attracts more first-time racket sport players (rather than crossovers), the gender balance may continue improving.

3. The social vs. competitive divide

Women are more likely to play pickleball recreationally and less likely to enter competitive tournaments or pursue DUPR ratings. This means the true participation gap is probably narrower than 64/36 — our data slightly overstates it by capturing the competitive end of the spectrum.

4. Growth trajectory

Pickleball is still one of the fastest-growing sports in America, and newer sports tend to start male-heavy before balancing out. The trend line matters more than the snapshot — and by most accounts, women's participation is growing faster than men's.

The Bottom Line

Pickleball's gender gap is real — but it's smaller than most comparable sports. The headline numbers:

• Participation: 64% men, 36% women — better than golf (77/23) and on par with tennis (65/35)
• Average skill: Just 0.261 DUPR points separate men and women — less than half a skill bracket
• Elite level: The gap widens — men are twice as likely to be 4.0+ and 2.4x more likely to be 5.0+
• Geography: Minnesota (39.5% women) to Texas (33.8%) — a modest 5.7-point spread across major states

The data tells a story of a sport that's doing better than most on gender balance, but isn't there yet. The participation gap is narrowing, the skill gap is surprisingly small at the recreational level, and nearly half a million women are already competing. At the elite level, the pipeline is thinner — but with nearly 29,000 women rated 4.0+ and growing, the talent pool is building.

For a sport that barely existed 15 years ago, those are strong numbers. The trajectory matters as much as the snapshot — and pickleball's trajectory is heading in the right direction.

Want to explore more? Check out our complete guide to DUPR ratings, see how ratings vary by age group, or explore which states are most obsessed with pickleball.