Mapped: Where the UK's 1,978 Pilates Studios Actually Are

Where the UK's pilates studios actually are

There is no public register of pilates studios in the UK. We built one — 1,978 verified studios across 117 towns and cities — and this is what it shows.

Measure	Figure
Verified studios	1,978
Towns and cities covered	117
London's share	30%
Average Google rating	4.98

London has nine times more studios than anywhere else

Rank	City	Studios	Share
1	London	593	30%
2	Manchester	65	3%
3	Birmingham	39	2%
4	Bristol	38	2%
5	Edinburgh	37	2%
6	Brighton	31	2%
7	Liverpool	30	2%
8	Sheffield	28	1%
9	Glasgow	26	1%
10	Leeds	26	1%

London alone accounts for almost a third of every pilates studio in the country. The gap between first and second place is enormous: London has nine times more studios than Manchester.

But per head, London isn't the winner

Raw counts favour big cities. Adjust for population and the picture changes completely.

City	Studios	Approx. population	Studios per 100,000
Manchester	65	550,000	11.8
Brighton & Hove	31	280,000	11.1
Bristol	38	470,000	8.1
Edinburgh	37	520,000	7.1
London	593	8,900,000	6.7
Birmingham	39	1,150,000	3.4

Manchester and Brighton are the UK's most pilates-dense cities, not London. Both have roughly 11 studios per 100,000 residents — nearly double London's rate.

Birmingham is the UK's most underserved major city

At 3.4 studios per 100,000 people, Birmingham has half the provision of London and a third of Manchester's, despite being the UK's second-largest city.

If you live in Birmingham, you have fewer realistic options within travel distance than someone in a town a fifth of the size. For anyone thinking about opening a studio, that gap is the most obvious one in the dataset.

What a 4.98 average rating tells you (almost nothing)

The average Google rating across UK pilates studios is 4.98 out of 5.

That is not a sign that every studio is excellent. It is a sign that the rating is not a useful filter. When nearly everything sits between 4.9 and 5.0, the score has no discriminating power.

More useful signals:

• Review count. Fewer than 30 reviews is statistically thin. A 5.0 from 6 people tells you less than a 4.8 from 200.
• Review recency. Are people still reviewing this year, or did it stop 18 months ago?
• Class size. A studio running 4-person reformer classes and one running 12-person mat classes are different products at similar prices.
• Instructor qualifications. Ask directly. Comprehensive certification takes 450+ hours; a weekend mat course does not.

What this means if you're looking for a studio

In London you have genuine choice — use it. Trial two or three before committing to a block booking.

In Manchester, Brighton or Bristol the density is good enough that you should still be able to compare.

In Birmingham and most towns outside the top ten your realistic options may be one or two studios within travel distance. Widen your search radius, and consider whether a smaller studio with fewer reviews might simply be newer rather than worse.

Method

Studios were collected via the Google Places API and verified individually. "Studio" includes independent pilates studios and fitness facilities advertising dedicated pilates provision. Population figures are approximate local-authority estimates used only for order-of-magnitude comparison.

The dataset is current as of August 2026 and is refreshed regularly.

Using this data

You are welcome to cite these figures in reporting, research or industry analysis with attribution. Get in touch if you need a more detailed breakdown — full city list, per-region tables, or service-level splits.