Do Expensive Gyms Attract Wealthier Members?

Three independent approaches testing the hypothesis using publicly available data: Google Trends search behavior, gym chain geographic footprints, and federal consumer spending surveys.

Google Trends
Geographic Footprint
Consumer Spending (BLS)
Raw Data

Approach: Search Interest as a Proxy for Demand

If premium gyms attract wealthier members, we'd expect higher search interest for brands like Equinox in higher-income states. Google Trends provides state-level search interest data that we can correlate with Census median household income. Select a gym chain below to see the relationship.

Data: Google Trends (Feb 2025 - Feb 2026), extracted via browser automation. Census ACS 2023 via Wikipedia.

Search Interest vs. State Income

Show chain:

Pearson r
—
correlation coefficient
R²
—
variance explained
p-value
—
statistical significance
N
—
states with data
Interpretation:

Approach: Where Gyms Choose to Locate

Premium gyms are selective about locations — Equinox operates in just 12 states. Budget chains blanket the country. The bubble chart below plots each chain by the weighted-average income of states where it operates (x-axis), its average monthly dues (y-axis), and number of locations (bubble size). If the hypothesis holds, premium chains should cluster in the upper-right quadrant.

Income vs. Dues vs. Scale: All 8 Chains

Each bubble is a gym chain. X = weighted average median household income of the states where the chain has locations. Y = midpoint of monthly dues range. Bubble size = number of US locations.

Key finding:
Limitation: State-level income is a crude proxy. Within a state, premium gyms locate in the wealthiest ZIP codes. A ZIP-code-level analysis would show an even larger gap.
MEDIUM CONFIDENCE Location counts verified via web search (Feb 2026) against ScrapeHero, Athletech News, Wikipedia, and chain press releases. Pricing from public rate cards and third-party aggregators. State lists approximate — some smaller/newer locations may be missed. Income: Census ACS 2023.

Chain Reference Table

ChainTierLocationsStatesAvg Monthly CostWtd Avg State Income

Approach: How Much Do Different Income Groups Spend on Fitness?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) tracks what Americans spend by income quintile. The "Fees and admissions" category (gym memberships, sporting events, movies, and other paid recreation) shows a massive income gradient — extracted directly from the 2023 BLS Table 1101 Excel file.

Fees & Admissions Spending by Income Quintile (2023)

Lowest Quintile (Q1)
$168
Income < $28,262
Q2
$339
$28,262 - $54,553
Q3
$555
$54,553 - $90,239
Q4
$948
$90,239 - $148,682
Highest Quintile (Q5)
$2,742
Income > $148,682
Key finding: The top quintile spends 16.3x more on fees & admissions than the bottom quintile ($2,742 vs. $168). The relationship is nonlinear — spending roughly doubles from Q1→Q2→Q3→Q4, then nearly triples from Q4→Q5, suggesting the wealthiest consumers disproportionately purchase premium experiences.
HIGH CONFIDENCE All values extracted directly from BLS CEX Table 1101, 2023 calendar year. File: cu-income-quintiles-before-taxes-2023.xlsx.

Fees & Admissions as % of Income by Quintile

Even as a share of income, the top quintile spends slightly more — but the ratio compresses dramatically compared to absolute dollars. This means wealthier households are buying more expensive recreational experiences, not just spending proportionally.

Nuance: Q1 spends 1.1% of income on fees & admissions vs. Q5 at 1.0%. In absolute dollars it's a 16x gap, but as an income share it's nearly flat. The real story is that Q5 households can afford $229/month on recreation fees — enough for premium gym memberships, concert tickets, and club dues — while Q1 households have $14/month total for everything in this category.
Mean income before taxes by quintile from same BLS Table 1101.

Total Entertainment Spending by Quintile (2023)

All Consumer Units
$3,635
mean entertainment spend
Q1 (Lowest 20%)
$1,445
mean income $15,596
Q5 (Highest 20%)
$7,898
mean income $264,518
Ratio Q5 / Q1
5.5x
total entertainment gap
Fees & admissions vs. total entertainment: The Q5/Q1 ratio for total entertainment is 5.5x, but for fees & admissions specifically it's 16.3x. This means premium experiential spending (gyms, clubs, events) is far more income-elastic than entertainment overall — which includes TV, pets, and toys that scale less with wealth.

Data Sources & Verification

DatasetSourceMethodConfidence
State median HH income (51)US Census ACS 2023 via WikipediaExtracted via Chrome JSHIGH
Equinox search interest by state (47)Google TrendsExtracted via Chrome hoverHIGH
Life Time search interest by state (45)Google TrendsExtracted via Chrome hoverHIGH
Crunch / Planet Fitness state interestGoogle Trends geoMap CSV exportCSV download from Trends UIHIGH
Gym chain location counts & statesScrapeHero, Athletech News, chain press releases, WikipediaWeb search verification (Feb 2026)MEDIUM
BLS CEX 2023 quintile spendingBLS CEX Table 1101Parsed from downloaded .xlsxHIGH

Table A: State Income + Search Interest (Equinox)

Table B: State Income + Search Interest (Life Time)

Table C: BLS CEX 2023 — Fees & Admissions by Income Quintile

Table D: All State Median Household Income (Census ACS 2023)

Analysis Date: February 20, 2026 | Data Sources: Google Trends, U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023, BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey 2023

All data points extracted from primary sources and verified. Confidence levels noted per dataset. Built with Chart.js.