Research by family app HOOP shows that parent and child activities are becoming more diverse than ever with parents seeking more experience-led activities like raves, circus training and parkour for kids. Liverpool is the best city for new families, with more activities per capita of babies than any other city. Liverpool is also 2nd in the top city in the UK for family fun, pipped to the post only by Bristol.
From raving to circus training, family activities are more diverse than ever and babies in Liverpool have access to nearly three times the national average number of new parent activities per capita of children.
Best Cities for Parent and Baby Classes
# City Family Events & Activities Per 1,000 Children Aged 0-1yr
1. Liverpool 216.07
2. Edinburgh 191.75
3. Nottingham 188.04
4. Bristol 187.19
5. Sheffield 167.34
This is according to the Family Activity Report from Hoop (www.hoop.co.uk), the free app that makes it easy to discover what’s on for kids. The report has also revealed Liverpool is the second best city for family events, pipped to the top spot only by Bristol.
Best Cities for Family Events
# City Family Events & Activities Per 1,000 Children Aged 0-11yrs
1. Bristol 45.96
2. Liverpool 45.84
3. Glasgow 45.77
4. Edinburgh 42.32
5. Newcastle 40.53
Hoop data shows that some of the fastest growing sports activities are adrenaline fueled sports classes such as skateboarding and parkour and parent-baby fitness activities which have increased three fold over the last 12 months – the relative number of searches for these events on Hoop has also increased by 61%. When it comes to family fun, there has been a 56% increase in the number of baby raves and kids discos in the UK over the last twelve months.
The number of educational activities for children listed on Hoop has more than doubled in the last twelve months. Notable categories include computers, coding and technology classes and workshops, which have more than trebled. The relative number of searches for educational activities for children on Hoop has grown by a huge 85%.
Max Jennings, Hoop Co-founder, explains, ‘The growth of the experience economy is being driven by millennial parents who value highly new and learning experiences for themselves, now these aspirations are also passed on to their children. We’re seeing this on Hoop with an explosion of choice for families, as family organisers cater to a new generation of parents looking for a wider variety of classes to entertain and inspire their children.’
Whether your child wants to do a coding camp, try parkour or simply learn to swim, the family activity industry is booming. On average over 100,000 unique events, activities and classes for kids take place across the UK each month – equating to 17 activities per 1,000 children* across 200+ categories. In contrast children – aged 0-11 years – in Liverpool have access to 46 activities per 1,000 children. Of these, 20% percent of all activities in Liverpool are completely free to attend.
Top new sports:
1. ZAPspace
2. Rock Tots and Rock Kids
3. Flying Fantastic
4. Circus Dreams
5. Liverpool Trampoline Gymnastics Academy
6. mylittleboarders
7. Flip Out
8. RedKangaroo Trampoline Parks
9. Magical Circus
10. National Centre for Circus Arts
Top parent/ baby fitness:
1. Sweaty Mama
2. Fieldworks Gym
3. Latino Bambino
4. Buggyfit
5. MG Fitness
6. Babybounce
7. One Fit Mama
8. Busylizzy
9. Female Fitness Matters
10. POPfit
Max Jennings, Co-founder of Hoop, explains, ‘There are so many great things going on across the UK for kids but if you don’t know where to look they can be easy to miss. As a dad, I regularly struggled to find things going on for my daughters locally, and would end up wading through parenting forums, local notice boards and websites. Hoop is our attempt to unravel this mess, and to make parenting that little bit easier.’
Download HOOP from the App Store and keep up to date with the next ParentFolk events.
