San Antonio is the seventh-worst U.S. city for number of gyms per capita

San Antonio ranks as one of the nation’s worst cities for gym access, according to a new study.

In total, the Alamo City area has 293 gyms and fitness centers — about 11 for every 100,000 residents, or the seventh-fewest of any large U.S. metro, according to the report by engineering-solutions company Cinch.

Researchers analyzed gym concentrations using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Centers for Disease Control.

San Antonio-New Braunfels came in 47th on a list of 53 metros. In contrast, Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos was one of the cities with the most gyms per capita, coming in at ninth place.

The less-populated Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos region has a total of 418 gyms, compared to San Antonio’s 293 gyms. That results in 17.3 gyms per 100,000 people in Austin, as opposed to the paltry count here. 
According to the report, 83.3% of Austin’s adult population is in good health, as opposed to 77.5% of the population in San Antonio. Additionally, Austin reports 30.8% of its population as obese, compared with 37.5% of the population in San Antonio.

However, the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands area fared far worse on gym access than the Alamo City, with just 10.2 per 100,000 people. That Texas metro garnered the spot of fifth-worst city in the country. Even so, San Antonio’s obesity rate is still almost 2% higher.

The only large metros in America that fare worse than San Antonio on gym access are, in respective order, Fresno, California; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Riverside, California; Detroit, Michigan; the aforementioned Houston and Tucson, Arizona.

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This article appears in Apr 2-15, 2025.