Are American kids leaving football for soccer? What the data says

Is the fear of tackle football real?

Yes. The Aspen Institute's State of Play 2025 report says some parents delayed or walked away from tackle football because of the risk of brain injuries. In Arizona, a survey by the Barrow Neurological Institute found that the share of parents who would let their child play football fell from 68% in 2016 to 47% in its latest reading, while 84% said they would allow soccer. Over a decade, girls' high school soccer in that state grew at about the same rate that football declined.

So did those kids move to soccer?

Nationally, the numbers do not show it. According to Sports & Fitness Industry Association data published by Aspen, flag football was the only team sport that grew in regular participation among kids ages 6 to 17 between 2019 and 2024. Among kids ages 6 to 12 the changes were:

Flag football is absorbing the families who want football without tackling. In 2024, 4% of kids ages 6 to 12 played flag and 2.7% played tackle. Aspen reports that some soccer leaders privately worry that flag is pulling away would-be soccer players: soccer's participation lead over flag among kids 6 to 12 shrank from 6.4 percentage points in 2012 to 3.5 points in 2024.

Is football shrinking in high school?

No. The National Federation of State High School Associations counted 1,043,716 boys in 11-player football in 2025-26, up 1.4% and the highest total since 2016-17. Soccer is also healthy at that level: 484,908 boys and 393,048 girls played high school soccer in 2024-25, and girls' soccer grew 2.4% that year.

Is soccer safer for the brain?

Less than most parents assume. A study published in Pediatrics covering 20 high school sports found 10.4 concussions per 10,000 athlete exposures in football and 8.19 in girls' soccer, the second highest rate of any sport. A club or a sponsor that sells soccer as the safe alternative to football is making a claim the medical data does not support.

Where is soccer's growth coming from, then?

From demographics and from fandom. Aspen reports that participation among Latino youth grew faster than in any other group: 65% of Latino kids ages 6 to 17 tried a sport in 2024, a higher rate than Black or White youth. Participation among Latina girls rose from 39.5% in 2019 to 48.4% in 2024, according to McKinsey, and Latinos are 26% of Americans under 25. The 2026 World Cup final drew 62.8 million viewers in the United States, the largest soccer audience the country has recorded.

The same report carries a caution. Aspen documents programs and leagues that lost players in 2025 and 2026 because families feared immigration enforcement near parks and fields. Anyone planning around Hispanic community soccer should know that attendance can move for reasons that have nothing to do with the sport.

What does this mean for a sponsor?

The case for sponsoring soccer in the United States does not depend on football losing. It rests on a young, growing Latino audience that plays and follows the sport, and on a fan base Nielsen puts at 62.2 million people. Hispanic Retail Media (HRM) works on the local end of that market: semipro and lower-division clubs in Hispanic communities, where brands can buy jersey, banner and matchday inventory with category exclusivity.