Pole CommunityPole and aerial studios in the US by the numbers, 2026
This is an annual count of pole and aerial studios in the United States, derived from the Pole Community directory dataset on every build, with data as of the last data update (2026-10-26). It is a floor, not a census: a studio we have not found yet is not counted, so the real number is at least this large.
Key findings
- US studios listed
- 1131 This directory lists 1131 pole and aerial studios across 50 US states plus Washington DC, and 1160 in all including studios outside the US, as of 2026-10-26.
- US cities with a studio
- 695 695 US cities have at least one listed pole or aerial studio.
- Cities with exactly one studio
- 522 In 522 of the 695 US cities with a studio (75%), the listed studio is the only one in town.
- Studios teaching pole
- 772 772 of the 1131 US studios (68%) teach pole. The other 359 (32%) are aerial-only, teaching silks, lyra, hammock, aerial yoga or another apparatus without pole.
- Advertise an intro offer
- 39% 39% of the 1131 US studios in this directory (443 studios) advertise an intro offer on their own website.
- Median first-class price
- $20 A first pole class costs a median of $20 at the 84 US studios that advertise a first-class price (range $5 to $59). 20 studios, 5% of those with an offer on file, make the first class free. Full price breakdown
- Verified against the studio's own site
- 59% 662 of the 1131 US listings (59%) were verified against the studio's own website or schedule; the other 469 are listed but not yet re-verified.
- States with the most studios
- California, Colorado, Texas California has the most listed studios with 91, followed by Colorado with 56 and Texas with 54.
- With a direct booking link
- 633 633 of the 1131 US studios (56%) link to a booking page where a new student can reserve a class directly.
- Studios per million residents
- 3.3 Across the states in this directory there are 3.3 listed pole and aerial studios per million residents. Alaska has the highest rate at 13.6 per million, from 10 listed studios.
Figures computed at build time from the directory dataset. Newest verification date on file: 2026-10-26.
Cite this report
Pole Community. "Pole and Aerial Studios by the Numbers, 2026." polecommunity.com/stats. Data as of 2026-10-26.
Free to quote with a link to this page.
The tables and figures on this page are published under CC BY 4.0. The directory listings themselves stay all rights reserved and are not covered by that licence.
Download the data
The aggregates on this page, as spreadsheet files. Each file is plain CSV a spreadsheet or a script can open, and carries its own title, date, citation and licence in the rows under the table, so the numbers stay attributable long after the file has been mailed on.
Aggregates only. No file lists individual studios, and no per-studio price is published in them or anywhere else on this site.
Method
Every figure on this page is derived from the directory's own dataset when the site is built, never typed by hand, so the numbers update themselves whenever a studio is added, removed or re-verified. The data is collected and verified by this site: each listing carries the sources we actually checked.
662 of the 1131 US listings are verified, meaning we confirmed the studio's own website or schedule on the date shown on its listing. The remaining 469 are listed but not yet re-verified: they appear in earlier listings and research passes, and their current activity has not been re-confirmed. The total is a floor, not a census: a studio we have not found yet is not counted, so the real number of studios is at least this large.
Percentages are rounded to whole numbers. Prices are medians of the studios that advertise a price on their own website, not of every studio.
What a first class costs, from the same dataset: intro offer prices.
Studios by state
All 51 regions in the directory, ranked by listed studios. States with the same count share a rank.
| Rank | State | Studios | Cities | Verified | Per million residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 91 | 64 | 60 | 2.3 |
| 2 | Colorado | 56 | 23 | 15 | 9.3 |
| 3 | Texas | 54 | 34 | 31 | 1.7 |
| 3 | Washington | 54 | 31 | 40 | 6.7 |
| 5 | Florida | 50 | 32 | 35 | 2.1 |
| 6 | Illinois | 48 | 26 | 22 | 3.8 |
| 7 | Georgia | 45 | 28 | 30 | 4.0 |
| 8 | New York | 44 | 30 | 19 | 2.2 |
| 8 | Pennsylvania | 44 | 24 | 16 | 3.4 |
| 10 | Oregon | 37 | 16 | 23 | 8.7 |
| 11 | North Carolina | 34 | 16 | 23 | 3.0 |
| 12 | Virginia | 33 | 23 | 20 | 3.7 |
| 13 | Ohio | 30 | 14 | 19 | 2.5 |
| 14 | Massachusetts | 28 | 23 | 18 | 3.9 |
| 14 | Tennessee | 28 | 14 | 16 | 3.8 |
| 16 | Arizona | 26 | 11 | 17 | 3.4 |
| 16 | Indiana | 26 | 17 | 17 | 3.7 |
| 16 | Maryland | 26 | 21 | 5 | 4.1 |
| 19 | Michigan | 24 | 18 | 17 | 2.4 |
| 19 | Missouri | 24 | 15 | 21 | 3.8 |
| 19 | New Jersey | 24 | 24 | 7 | 2.5 |
| 22 | Nevada | 21 | 6 | 13 | 6.4 |
| 22 | South Carolina | 21 | 9 | 8 | 3.8 |
| 22 | Wisconsin | 21 | 15 | 11 | 3.5 |
| 25 | Louisiana | 17 | 9 | 7 | 3.7 |
| 26 | Utah | 15 | 13 | 15 | 4.2 |
| 27 | Hawaii | 14 | 8 | 13 | 9.8 |
| 27 | Minnesota | 14 | 9 | 8 | 2.4 |
| 29 | Oklahoma | 13 | 7 | 9 | 3.2 |
| 30 | Iowa | 11 | 6 | 8 | 3.4 |
| 30 | Kansas | 11 | 8 | 6 | 3.7 |
| 32 | Alaska | 10 | 7 | 5 | 13.6 |
| 32 | Montana | 10 | 4 | 6 | 8.7 |
| 32 | South Dakota | 10 | 5 | 7 | 10.7 |
| 35 | Alabama | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1.7 |
| 35 | Idaho | 9 | 7 | 4 | 4.4 |
| 35 | Maine | 9 | 5 | 5 | 6.4 |
| 35 | West Virginia | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5.1 |
| 39 | Arkansas | 8 | 8 | 5 | 2.6 |
| 39 | Connecticut | 8 | 8 | 7 | 2.2 |
| 39 | Kentucky | 8 | 4 | 6 | 1.7 |
| 39 | New Mexico | 8 | 4 | 5 | 3.8 |
| 43 | New Hampshire | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4.9 |
| 43 | Rhode Island | 7 | 6 | 5 | 6.3 |
| 45 | Delaware | 6 | 4 | 5 | 5.7 |
| 45 | Nebraska | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3.0 |
| 45 | Vermont | 6 | 5 | 6 | 9.3 |
| 48 | Mississippi | 5 | 5 | 3 | 1.7 |
| 48 | North Dakota | 5 | 4 | 3 | 6.3 |
| 50 | Wyoming | 4 | 4 | 2 | 6.8 |
| 51 | Washington, DC | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4.3 |
Measured against population rather than raw size, Alaska has the most studios per million residents in this directory (13.6 per million, from 10 listed studios), then South Dakota at 10.7 and Hawaii at 9.8. Across the states in this table the directory lists 3.3 studios per million residents. A state with fewer than 5 listed studios still shows its rate, in grey, but is never ranked by it: a rate computed from a handful of studios describes the handful, not the state.
Population: US Census Bureau NST-EST2025-POP, resident population as of 2025-07-01, retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The studio counts are ours; the population is not.
Studios by discipline
Most studios teach more than one discipline, and each studio counts once per discipline it teaches, so these counts add up to more than 1160.
- 792 Pole
- 487 Lyra/Hoop
- 470 Silks
- 381 Hammock
- 362 Flexibility
- 279 Dance/Twerk
- 262 Other Aerial
- 256 Chair/Exotic
- 181 Trapeze
- 69 Aerial Yoga
Common questions
How many pole dance studios are there in the US?
This directory lists 1131 pole and aerial studios in the United States across 50 US states plus Washington DC as of 2026-10-26, and 772 of them teach pole. That is a floor, not the full national count: it includes only studios we have researched and listed, and a studio we have not found yet is not in it.
Which US state has the most pole dance studios?
California leads this directory with 91 listed studios, followed by Colorado with 56 and Texas with 54.
How many US cities have a pole dance studio?
695 US cities have at least one pole or aerial studio listed in this directory, and in 522 of them (75%) that studio is the only one.
What percentage of pole studios offer a beginner intro deal?
39% of the 1131 US studios in this directory (443 studios) advertise an intro offer on their own website, as of 2026-10-26. The share counts offers we found on record; a studio that runs a deal without publishing it is not counted.
How much does a first pole class cost?
A first pole class costs a median of $20 at the 84 US studios that advertise a first-class price, as of 2026-10-26. That is a median of the studios that publish a price, not of every studio; the breakdown by offer type and state is at polecommunity.com/cost. We leave offers that only some newcomers can get, such as residents-only deals, out of the medians. See the cost page
How many of these listings are verified?
662 of the 1131 US listings are verified, meaning we confirmed the studio's own website or schedule on the date shown on its listing. The other 469 are listed but not yet re-verified: they come from earlier listings and research passes, and current activity has not been re-confirmed.
How current are these numbers?
They are recomputed from the directory dataset every time the site is built, so they change whenever a studio is added, removed or re-verified. The newest verification date on file is 2026-10-26.
Which state has the most pole studios per person?
Per million residents rather than in raw numbers, Alaska leads this directory at 13.6 studios per million (from 10 listed studios), followed by South Dakota at 10.7 and Hawaii at 9.8. The national rate across the states listed here is 3.3 per million. States with fewer than 5 listed studios are shown with a rate but never ranked by it. Population figures are US Census Bureau NST-EST2025-POP, as of 2025-07-01.