Cricket demographics statistics show a global sport with more than 1 billion fans aged 16–69 and more than 300 million active participants over age 16. The available research also shows a predominantly male audience, strong interest across all international formats, and continuing growth in women’s, junior, multicultural, Indigenous, and disability participation. The figures below retain the source and measurement period for each result.
Contents
- Global cricket audience
- Format and event preferences
- Women’s cricket demographics
- Participation in Australia
- Recreational cricket in England
- Equity and professional pathways
Global cricket audience
The ICC’s first global market research, conducted in 2018, estimated more than 1 billion cricket fans in the surveyed 16–69 age category. The same research put the average cricket fan age at 34 years. That age figure describes the average fan in the survey, rather than the age of every participant or the age profile of a particular national audience.
The gender split in that 2018 global fan research was 61% male and 39% female. In other words, women represented more than one-third of the surveyed global fan base, while men represented roughly three-fifths. These percentages are audience demographics, not a count of registered players.
The ICC also reported more than 300 million active cricket participants over age 16 in 2018. The distinction between fans and active participants matters: the first figure describes people interested in the sport, while the second describes people taking part. Neither measure is presented here as a current forecast.
Interest was broad across international cricket. Two-thirds of interviewed fans over age 16 said they were interested in all three international formats. The ICC reported that 95% of fans were interested or very interested in ICC global events. Global interest reached 92% for Twenty20 internationals, 88% for one-day internationals, and close to 70% for Test cricket.
The 2018 results also varied by market and format. Test interest in England and Wales was 86%. ODI interest in South Africa was 91%, while T20I interest in Pakistan was 98%. These market-specific percentages should not be treated as a single global ranking: each describes interest in a named format within a named geography.
Format and event preferences
The strongest global format result in the ICC’s 2018 research was the 92% interest level for Twenty20 internationals. The 88% ODI result was also high, while Test cricket attracted close to 70% global interest. The figures indicate that the shorter formats had wider stated interest in the surveyed global sample, but they do not measure viewing hours, attendance, or match frequency.
The market figures add useful context. Pakistan’s 98% T20I interest was higher than the global T20I result, and South Africa’s 91% ODI interest was higher than the global ODI result. England and Wales recorded 86% interest in Test cricket, also above the global result of close to 70%. The research therefore shows that format preference is not uniform across cricket markets.
Olympic interest was another prominent result. In 2018, 87% of fans wanted Twenty20 cricket included in the Olympic Games. This is a preference measure from the ICC’s global research, not a record of Olympic participation or a prediction of future scheduling.
The ICC’s 2018 research found that 68% of fans were interested in women’s cricket. It also found that 65% were interested in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup and 70% wanted more live coverage of women’s cricket. Together, the results describe substantial audience demand alongside a stated desire for greater access to live coverage.
Women’s cricket demographics
The ICC Women’s World Cup research from 2017 measured responses from sports fans around the tournament. It found that 93% said the event showed the best standard of women’s cricket they had ever seen, and 91% found the matches exciting to watch on television. A further 82% followed the Women’s World Cup more than any previous women’s cricket event, while 67% said they would take a greater interest in women’s cricket after the tournament.
Awareness and media perceptions differed by market. Across the five surveyed markets, 65% of sports fans were aware that the ICC Women’s World Cup had taken place. Awareness reached 94% in India and 67% in England and Wales. The research also found that almost 40% of respondents’ children watched coverage of the tournament, and 50% said their children were inspired to try playing cricket or play more cricket afterward.
The same 2017 research asked whether media coverage of women’s cricket had increased in the previous two years. The result was 92% among sports fans in India, 66% in England and Wales, 66% in Australia, 58% in South Africa, and 50% in New Zealand. These are perceptions reported by sports fans, rather than independently measured broadcast-volume data.
South African findings from the ICC women’s tournaments in South Africa report, published in 2024, show several participation and pathway indicators. South Africa invested R15 million over three years in women’s cricket after the ICC women’s tournaments. More than half of South African respondents recognized increased professional contracts for women, and 83% saw a surge in girls’ interest in cricket as a career.
More than 60% of South African respondents saw greater social acceptance of women’s cricket at grassroots level. The report recorded perceived increases in soft-ball participation at 65% and hard-ball participation at 69%. In addition, 49% saw more schools and clubs offering girls’ cricket, while 50% saw increased interest in non-playing cricket careers.
Participation in Australia
Cricket Australia’s National Cricket Census 2014–15 counted 1,208,360 total participants. The total included 628,826 school participants, 415,104 club and community participants, and 164,430 indoor participants. The census recorded 24,961 cricket teams: 23,111 traditional 11-a-side teams and 1,850 modified teams.
The same census counted 37,683 children in MILO in2CRICKET and 13,227 in MILO T20 Blast. The junior age 9–12 group contained 73,686 participants. Female participants totaled 290,566, making women and girls 24% of all Australian cricket participants in that census. Australia also counted 26,427 Indigenous participants, 146,658 multicultural participants, and 10,292 participants with a disability. Cricket Australia said more than 50,000 volunteers supported the game.
The 2017–18 Cricket Australia National Cricket Census provides another dated snapshot. School cricket programs involved 854,951 Australians, while 703,870 played regular competitions or club-based junior or senior cricket. Cricket Australia invested $35 million over three years with state and territory associations to grow community cricket. The number of accredited coaches rose by more than 24% to 34,380, and Australia had 3,577 accredited umpires.
Participation measures for inclusion also changed in that 2017–18 census. Multicultural participation rose to 268,596, representing 22% of all Australian cricket participants. Indigenous participation rose to 64,921, or 5.2%. Participants with a disability totaled 25,846, or 2.1%.
The Cricket Australia census report from 2022 recorded junior club cricket registrations rising from 109,400 to 114,400 year on year. Boys’ junior registrations rose 4.5% versus the last non-COVID year, while girls’ junior registrations rose 24.5%. Senior club cricket registrations rose from 212,000 to 223,000. Indoor participation rose from 71,857 to 101,081, and organized school cricket rose from 47,031 to 62,504.
| Australian participation measure | Earlier figure | Later figure or result | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior club registrations | 109,400 | 114,400 | Cricket Australia census report, 2022 |
| Senior club registrations | 212,000 | 223,000 | Cricket Australia census report, 2022 |
| Indoor participation | 71,857 | 101,081 | Cricket Australia census report, 2022 |
| Organized school cricket | 47,031 | 62,504 | Cricket Australia census report, 2022 |
Recreational cricket in England
The ECB’s Thriving Clubs Strategy, dated 2026, says recreational cricket has 1.2 million participants, 195,000 fixtures, 5,704 active clubs, and 43,454 teams. The strategy counts 20,830 open-age teams and 14,794 junior teams. It also lists 2,602 women’s teams and 2,496 girls’ teams.
The team mix provides a useful view of the recreational structure. Junior teams account for 36% of total teams, open-age teams account for 51%, and women’s and girls’ teams account for 13%. These shares are reported ECB measures and are not recalculated here from the displayed team counts.
The ECB says its All Stars and Dynamos programs total 100,000 participants. Recreational cricket includes 158 Disability Champion clubs and 70,000 volunteers. These figures broaden the demographic picture beyond registered players by showing the scale of entry programs, disability-focused provision, and volunteer support.
Earlier participation data also show international growth outside the largest cricket systems. ICC Associate and Affiliate Members recorded 338,051 male and female participants in 2007, compared with 289,209 in 2006. The ICC Associate/Affiliate participation report described that change as a 17% year-on-year rise in active cricketers. The report’s year labels are retained because this is historical participation data.
Equity and professional pathways
The ECB State of Equity in Cricket Report 2025 records different levels of ethnic diversity across professional groups. Under-23 men’s professional ethnic diversity reached 24%, compared with 11% for men over 23. Across the England Men, Lions, and Under-19 squads, 24% of players were ethnically diverse in 2024–25. Women’s professional game ethnic diversity was 8%.
The England Women Under-19 2026 selection was 35% ethnically diverse. The report gives a progression from 5% in 2023 to 10% in 2024, 15% in 2025, and 35% in the 2026 selection. Those are selection-year figures and should not be read as a measure of every level of women’s cricket.
Financial indicators also changed in The Hundred women’s competition. The average salary rose from £8,000 in 2021 to £29,100 in 2025. The lowest salary band rose from £3,600 to £10,000. The top salary was rising to around £130,000 in 2026 from £15,000 in 2021. Women’s salary spend in The Hundred was projected at 43% of men’s in 2026, up from 25% in 2022; the 2026 figure is an explicit forecast or planned level in the report.
Audience and development figures accompany those professional measures. England Women attendance reached 105,023 in 2024, the highest in a non-Ashes year. The Hundred women’s competition drew 349,401 fans in 2025. The ECB funded over 1,000 coaching bursaries in 2025: 51% went to women and 22% went to coaches from ethnically diverse communities.
Representation in coaching remained uneven. The ECB said one in 16 head coaches in The Hundred were women in 2025, or 6%, and one in eight head coaches for Tier 1 women’s teams were women, or 12%. No female head coaches were in the men’s professional game in 2025. The first Player to Coach cohort contained 12 players.
Disability and youth pathways were also quantified. The Lord’s Taverners’ Super 1s programme had a 26% female participation rate. Since 2021, county disability cricket teams had more than doubled, with nearly 1,000 registered players across England and Wales. The Disability Premier League had 86 players in the 2025 selection draft, up from 60 in 2022.
The ECB’s planned and measured development programs add further scale. EEPs were set to launch across all 38 counties in 2025–26, providing access for over 7,000 boys and girls aged under 10 to under 12. The ECB aimed to deliver 210 hubs in 2026, expected to engage 7,560 participants. In 2024–25, 11 PCCs piloted supplementary support for 422 cricketers aged under 13–15; all 18 PCCs were expected to provide support in 2025–26 for an estimated 690 state-educated boys and girls.
At CAG level, 27% of boys and 17% of girls were from ethnically diverse communities. Among 2025 coaching-course participants, women represented 24% at ECB level, 17% at PCC level, and 26% at RCB level. These results show that cricket demographics extend from the global fan base into participation, coaching, selection, attendance, and professional opportunity.