Volleyball participation remains substantial across U.S. schools and organized club structures. The latest National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) figures record 492,799 girls high school participants in 2024-25, while USA Volleyball reported 434,284 full members for the 2023-24 season. These figures describe different populations and measurement periods, so they should be read separately rather than combined.
Contents
- High school volleyball participation
- Girls volleyball over time
- Boys volleyball over time
- School sponsorship and national ranking
- Participation across all high school sports
- Other volleyball formats
- USA Volleyball membership
High school volleyball participation
NFHS participation surveys provide school-year counts for high school sports. The girls and boys totals below come from different survey years, and the school counts refer to schools offering the sport during that survey period.
| Survey period | Girls participants | Girls schools | Boys participants | Boys schools |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 454,153 | 16,532 | — | — |
| 2022-23 | 470,488 | 16,610 | 77,287 | 3,376 |
| 2023-24 | 479,125 | 16,849 | 85,255 | 3,805 |
| 2024-25 | 492,799 | Not supplied | Not supplied | Not supplied |
The 2021-22 girls total was 454,153 participants, with girls volleyball offered at 16,532 schools. These figures come from the NFHS 2021-22 Participation Survey.
In 2022-23, the NFHS counted 470,488 girls volleyball participants and 77,287 boys volleyball participants. Volleyball was offered at 16,610 schools for girls and 3,376 schools for boys. The NFHS 2022-23 Participation Survey also listed 86 participants in adapted volleyball, 292 in mixed 6-coed volleyball, 813 in unified volleyball, and 9,808 in beach volleyball.
For 2023-24, the NFHS counted 479,125 girls participants and 85,255 boys participants. Girls volleyball was offered at 16,849 schools, while boys volleyball was offered at 3,805 schools. Those are school-year participation figures from the NFHS 2023-24 Participation Survey.
The 2024-25 survey recorded 492,799 girls volleyball participants. The supplied NFHS result does not provide a corresponding 2024-25 boys volleyball total or girls and boys school-sponsorship counts, so those figures are not included here. The 2024-25 result is from the NFHS 2024-25 Participation Survey.
Girls volleyball over time
The available NFHS series shows girls volleyball participation rising in each listed survey year. It moved from 454,153 participants in 2021-22 to 470,488 in 2022-23, then to 479,125 in 2023-24 and 492,799 in 2024-25.
The NFHS reported that girls volleyball was up 3.6% from the prior year in 2022-23. It also reported a 3.6% increase from the prior year in 2023-24. For 2024-25, the reported year-over-year increase was 2.85%. These are the published percentage changes in the respective NFHS 2022-23, NFHS 2023-24, and NFHS 2024-25 participation surveys.
The school-sponsorship count also increased across the two periods for which it was supplied: 16,532 schools in 2021-22 and 16,610 in 2022-23. It then reached 16,849 schools in 2023-24. School availability therefore expanded across the supplied period, although the surveys do not establish why the count changed.
Girls volleyball held the No. 2 position among girls sports in each of the 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 NFHS survey results. In each of those results, outdoor track and field was ahead of volleyball and soccer was behind it. The 2022-23 survey also described girls volleyball as one of the top two girls sports nationally.
Boys volleyball over time
The NFHS recorded 77,287 boys volleyball participants in 2022-23 and 85,255 in 2023-24. During the same periods, the number of schools offering boys volleyball rose from 3,376 to 3,805.
| Measure | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|
| Boys participants | 77,287 | 85,255 |
| Schools offering boys volleyball | 3,376 | 3,805 |
The two years show higher reported participation and more schools offering the sport in 2023-24. The figures come from the NFHS 2022-23 Participation Survey and NFHS 2023-24 Participation Survey. No boys volleyball total for 2024-25 was supplied, so the series ends at 2023-24.
School sponsorship and national ranking
School sponsorship indicates how many schools offered a sport, while participant totals indicate the number of students counted in that survey. They are related measures, but they answer different questions. A school count does not by itself identify team size or participation per school.
Girls volleyball was a top-three girls sport by school sponsorship in 2021-22, with 16,532 schools. It remained a top-three girls sport by school sponsorship in 2022-23, with 16,610 schools. In the same 2022-23 survey, girls volleyball was also ranked among the top two girls sports by participation nationally.
The participation ranking was consistent in the supplied results: girls volleyball was No. 2 among girls sports in 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25. Outdoor track and field ranked ahead of it, and soccer ranked behind it in each stated survey result. These rankings are reported by the respective NFHS participation surveys.
Participation across all high school sports
Volleyball can also be viewed alongside the overall NFHS high school sports totals. In 2022-23, the survey included 4,529,789 boys participants across all sports and 3,328,180 girls participants across all sports.
In 2023-24, the NFHS reported 4,638,785 boys participants and 3,423,517 girls participants across all sports, for a total of 8,062,302 participants. The 2023-24 survey also reported that girls volleyball was up 3.6% from the prior year in school-year participation.
The 2024-25 survey recorded 4,726,648 boys participants and 3,539,596 girls participants across all sports. It set an all-time high of 8,266,244 total participants across all sports and reported an increase of 203,942 participants from 2023-24. These overall totals and the all-time-high designation come from the NFHS 2024-25 Participation Survey.
The all-sports totals are not volleyball totals. They provide context for the scale of high school athletics, while the volleyball figures above identify the participants counted in volleyball specifically. The surveys also use school-year periods, so they should not be treated as calendar-year counts.
Other volleyball formats
The 2022-23 NFHS survey included several volleyball formats beyond the principal girls and boys high school categories. Beach volleyball had 9,808 participants, making it the largest of the specifically listed additional formats in the supplied figures.
Unified volleyball had 813 participants, mixed 6-coed volleyball had 292, and adapted volleyball had 86. These categories are reported separately from the main girls and boys volleyball totals in the NFHS 2022-23 Participation Survey.
Because the formats are listed separately, they should not be added to the girls or boys totals without knowing whether the survey’s counting rules allow such a combination. The available facts identify participation in each format, but do not provide a method for determining overlap between participants.
USA Volleyball membership
USA Volleyball reported 446,502 total members in the 2022-23 membership statistics. That total included 404,387 adult female members, 42,115 adult male members, 343,097 junior female members, and 29,914 junior male members. The supplied categories are presented as reported by USA Volleyball’s 2022-2023 Member Statistics.
For the 2023-24 season, USA Volleyball reported 434,284 total full members. The reported breakdown included 405,724 adult female members, 28,560 adult male members, 332,633 junior female members, and 24,979 junior male members. These figures come from USA Volleyball’s 2023-2024 Season Member Statistics.
| USA Volleyball measure | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|
| Total members or full members | 446,502 | 434,284 |
| Adult female members | 404,387 | 405,724 |
| Adult male members | 42,115 | 28,560 |
| Junior female members | 343,097 | 332,633 |
| Junior male members | 29,914 | 24,979 |
The labels matter: the 2022-23 source reports total members, while the 2023-24 source reports total full members. These membership counts are not the same measure as NFHS school participation, and the source descriptions do not establish that every person in one system is counted in the other.
USA Volleyball’s 2022-23 regional figures included 26,574 members in Southern California, 21,767 in the Southern region, 9,371 in Rocky Mountain, 8,138 in Sun Country, 7,855 in Pioneer, 7,227 in Palmetto, 6,866 in Puget Sound, and 4,562 in Western Empire. These are regional membership counts from USA Volleyball’s 2022-2023 Member Statistics, not national school participation totals.