National, state data shows declining participation in girls high school basketball

Participation in high school sports has been declining overall in recent years, but girls basketball is among those to be hit hardest with shrinking numbers.

From 2018-19 to 2021-22, overall athletic participation declined to 7.6 million boys and girls, from 7.9 million three years previously, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Among 10 boys sports, golf was the only one to increase, up 4%. Girls golf participation was up 1%.

Girls volleyball has risen to trail only track and field as the most popular sport nationally. Volleyball had more than 454,000 participants in 2021-22.

Girls basketball, meanwhile, is now the fourth-most popular girls sport, with 370,466 participants. It once was the second-most popular sport in 2011-12, with 435,885 participants.

The graphs below show how participation has declined both nationally and in North Carolina.

This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM.

Jodie Valade

The Charlotte Observer

Jodie Valade is a former Planning and Enterprise Editor at The Charlotte Observer. She has also worked at WFAE as a digital editor, and freelanced for publications such as The Athletic, The Washington Post and The New York Times. She was a longtime, award-winning sports features and enterprise reporter at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. She also worked at The Dallas Morning News covering the Dallas Mavericks — where she became Mark Cuban’s lifelong email pen pal — and at The Kansas City Star. Support my work with a digital subscription