New York – September 30, 2026 -- The Women's Sports Foundation (WSF) has released its inaugural WSF Sport Report 2026, a new annual benchmark tracking girls' and women's sports participation from youth leagues through professional and Olympic competition.
Girls pay 25% more than boys to participate in organized sports
Median annual sports spending is $500 for girls compared with $400 for boys, according to the report. Cost is an even greater barrier for girls from lower-income households, who are more than twice as likely as their peers to cite expense as the reason they have never played.
54% of girls who have never played say they want to, nearly matching boys at 52%
Despite similar interest levels, actual participation diverges: 45% of girls ages 8-18 currently play organized sports versus 52% of boys, based on a YouGov survey of more than 6,100 U.S. parents and 3,065 children conducted May 28-June 15, 2026.
A belonging gap widens as girls enter their teens
At ages 8-10, 80% of both girls and boys feel sports are "for someone like me." By ages 14-18, that figure drops to 66% for girls versus 73% for boys, leaving roughly one in three teen girls feeling disconnected from the sports experience.
79% of girls and 55% of parents have never heard of Title IX
The awareness gap comes as 47% of the 60 industry experts surveyed by WSF between June 25 and July 22 identify Title IX rollbacks or weakened enforcement as the greatest threat to continued progress for girls and women in sports.
93% of experts report gender-equality progress at the professional level, the strongest of any tier
College sports tell a different story: it is the only level examined where more experts report declining progress (37%) than improvement (35%). Forty percent say the leading barrier they identified -- unequal resource allocation and disparities in name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities -- has worsened over the past year, compared with just 16% who see improvement. Experts also flagged concerns over new revenue-sharing structures and implementation of the House v. NCAA settlement.
45% of girls cannot name a favorite professional athlete, versus 29% of boys
Among boys who do name a favorite, only 2% choose a woman athlete, compared with 23% of girls. "Girls deserve an equal chance to get in the game, the resources to stay there, a place where they know they belong and the knowledge to stand up for their rights,