Pickleball group’s claim of 16 million Vietnamese players draws scrutiny

PPA Tour Pickleball Asia said the estimate came from a survey conducted by UPA Asia, which polled about 14,000 people across 12 Asian countries, including roughly 1,000 respondents in Vietnam.

PPA Tour Pickleball Asia is a regional professional pickleball circuit affiliated with the U.S.-based United Pickleball Association (UPA).

UPA Asia reported that about 16 percent of the Vietnamese respondents said they played pickleball at least once a month and extrapolated that rate to Vietnam’s population of about 100 million.

UPA Asia applied the same method to other countries, estimating 60 million players in China and 178 million in India.

Local media in those countries have reported growing interest in the sport but have not published participation figures of that scale.

UPA Asia did not disclose how survey respondents were selected.

Researchers note that survey results can be affected by sampling bias if respondents are drawn from groups that do not represent the wider population.

No Vietnamese sports authority or independent research organization has released data supporting nationwide participation figures for pickleball.