The short answer
- Barcelona has about 2.6 independent yoga, Pilates, barre and training studios per 10,000 residents. That's one for every 3,900 people.
- Sarrià-Sant Gervasi (5.0), Gràcia (4.7) and the Eixample (3.9) are the most crowded. Between them they have 55% of the studios and 32% of the residents.
- Horta-Guinardó, Nou Barris and Sant Andreu are home to 30% of the city and only 10% of its studios. In Nou Barris there is one studio for every 30,500 residents.
- Pilates makes up half the studios in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi and Sant Andreu. In Ciutat Vella, seven in ten are yoga studios.
Studios: public Google Maps listings, October 2026, no chains. Residents: the Ajuntament's municipal register, 1 January 2026. How I worked it out is at the end.
In this article
When someone tells me they want to open a studio, the first question is nearly always where. Part of it is rent. The other part is how many studios are already nearby, and what kind. So I counted the yoga and Pilates studios in Barcelona, district by district, and put them next to the number of people who live there.
That's more than 400 independent studios listed on Google Maps, with no chains or gyms. No studio is named: only the totals count here.
One studio I know opened in Gràcia, three blocks from four others. It took them almost two years to fill the evening classes.
How many yoga and Pilates studios there are in Barcelona, by district
A plain count is misleading, because the Eixample has more than twice as many residents as Gràcia. So I count studios per 10,000 residents. The city average is 2.6.
| District | Studios per 10,000 residents | One studio per | Residents' average salary (2024) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarrià-Sant Gervasi | 5.0 | 2,000 residents | €61,000 |
| Gràcia | 4.7 | 2,100 residents | €39,500 |
| Eixample | 3.9 | 2,500 residents | €40,400 |
| Sant Martí | 2.8 | 3,600 residents | €36,500 |
| Ciutat Vella | 2.8 | 3,600 residents | €27,300 |
| Les Corts | 2.4 | 4,200 residents | €46,400 |
| Sants-Montjuïc | 1.5 | 6,800 residents | €32,000 |
| Sant Andreu | 1.5 | 6,900 residents | €33,200 |
| Horta-Guinardó | 0.9 | 11,400 residents | €33,300 |
| Nou Barris | 0.3 | 30,500 residents | €26,900 |
| Barcelona | 2.6 | 3,900 residents | €36,500 |
I added salaries because they explain a good part of the map. The three districts with the most studios per resident all have salaries above the city average. The two with the fewest, Horta-Guinardó and Nou Barris, are below it. There are two exceptions, and they're the interesting ones: Les Corts and Ciutat Vella.
Where competition is highest
In Sarrià-Sant Gervasi there's one studio for every 2,000 residents, nearly twice the city average. Half of the district's studios are in Sant Gervasi-Galvany, and in Gràcia three in four are in the Vila de Gràcia. That's a handful of streets with a lot on offer.
Lots of studios doesn't mean there's no room for another. It also means people who already pay for classes live there. But opening there means competing on timetable, price and teachers from day one.
One caveat. The map counts residents, not people who work in the area. The Eixample and Ciutat Vella take in a lot of people every day who don't live there and can go to a class after work. I suspect that's why Ciutat Vella has almost as many studios per resident as Sant Martí, even though its residents have the lowest salaries in the city after Nou Barris.
Where there are few studios
The north is different. Horta-Guinardó, Nou Barris and Sant Andreu have 30% of Barcelona's residents and 10% of its studios. In Nou Barris there's one studio for every 30,500 residents.
Few studios can be an opening, or a sign that demand is lower. From here I can't tell which, and I won't guess. What I can see is that in Sant Andreu three in four studios are in the old centre of Sant Andreu de Palomar: where there's a shopping street, there are studios.
Les Corts is the exception that stands out most to me. It has the second-highest salaries in the city and is below average for studios per resident. If I were looking for premises, it's one of the first places I'd look.
Sant Martí is a little above average, but seven in ten of its studios are in the Poblenou neighbourhoods. The rest of the district has far fewer.
If I were opening one today, I'd pick Sant Andreu or the top of Sant Martí, away from the Poblenou strip. Rent is lower, there are plenty of residents, and a good studio could become the only one people need.
Pilates or yoga: what leads in each district
Across the city there are almost as many Pilates studios as yoga studios: 40% and 39%. But the mix changes a lot from district to district.
| District | Yoga | Pilates | Yoga and Pilates | Other (barre, training) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sarrià-Sant Gervasi | 29% | 51% | 4% | 16% |
| Gràcia | 43% | 33% | 12% | 12% |
| Eixample | 37% | 40% | 6% | 17% |
| Sant Martí | 38% | 39% | 7% | 15% |
| Ciutat Vella | 72% | 22% | 0% | 6% |
| Les Corts | 40% | 40% | 15% | 5% |
| Sants-Montjuïc | 38% | 34% | 7% | 21% |
| Sant Andreu | 22% | 52% | 4% | 22% |
| Horta-Guinardó and Nou Barris | 50% | 36% | 9% | 5% |
| Barcelona | 39% | 40% | 7% | 14% |
In Sarrià-Sant Gervasi and Sant Andreu, half the studios are Pilates studios. Ciutat Vella is the opposite: seven in ten are yoga. Yoga also leads in Gràcia, by less.
If you're opening a studio, this matters more than the total. A yoga studio opening in Sant Gervasi has less direct competition than the map suggests. A Pilates studio has more.
What to check before you pick premises
The map helps you rule an area out or decide where to go and look. It doesn't make the decision. Before signing, I'd do this:
- Count the studios within a ten-minute walk of the premises, especially ones like yours. A Pilates studio next to a yoga studio isn't the same competition as two Pilates studios.
- Walk the street on a weekday after 5 pm, the slot that takes half of all bookings. See whether people are out walking and how easy it is to get there.
- Look at who lives there. The Ajuntament's Portal de Dades has population by neighbourhood and salaries by district, for free.
- Do the sums for the premises with what people actually pay per class. I go through it in what a reformer Pilates studio costs and opening a yoga studio in Barcelona.
How I worked it out
- Studios. On 21 October 2026 I searched Google Maps for yoga, Pilates, reformer Pilates, barre and training studios, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. Only independent studios count: no chains or franchises, municipal sports centres, clinics or physiotherapists, teachers without premises, or listings with no website and very few reviews. Studios already using OPEN are left out too. A studio with several locations counts once per location. The district is the one on its Google listing, and one studio with no district was placed by its address.
- Type of studio. Each studio is classed as yoga, Pilates, both, or other (barre, functional training, indoor cycling). I only give the type mix where there are enough studios for it to mean something.
- Residents. The Ajuntament de Barcelona's municipal register on 1 January 2026.
- Salaries. Average salary of residents in each district in 2024, from the Ajuntament.
- Map. District boundaries are the Ajuntament de Barcelona's (CC BY 4.0 licence), simplified so the map loads quickly. Neighbouring towns and Montjuïc come from OpenStreetMap. Each dot is the studio's public address. A few studios I couldn't place precisely aren't shown as dots, but they count in the figures.
- Treat the figures as a minimum. The search ran neighbourhood by neighbourhood, so a studio in a quiet area may have been missed. They compare districts well, but they aren't a census.
- Every figure combines at least five studios. No studio is named or identifiable.
Get the next article
One a month, for people who run a studio. No ads.
I make OPEN, booking software for studios. If you're thinking about where to open and want to talk it through, book half an hour with me.
