State of Powerlifting 2026

Growth

The sport grew 9x in 20 years

In 2005 there were 31,264 competition entries across the entire dataset. In 2025 there were 282,466. That is roughly a 9-fold increase in two decades, and the curve is still climbing.

This is not a story of a few mega-meets getting bigger. It is broad-based participation growth: more federations sanctioning more meets in more countries, with the steepest acceleration arriving after 2015 as raw lifting and women's participation both expanded the addressable base of the sport.

Participation

The women's surge: 17.3% to 36%

In 2005, women were 17.3% of all competition entries. By 2025 that share had more than doubled to 36%, and in the partial 2026 data it sits at 40.2%.

Powerlifting is approaching gender parity faster than any comparable strength sport. The trajectory has been steady rather than spiky, which is what makes it credible: every full year since the mid-2000s added share, with no reversal. At the current slope, women's entries are on track to reach parity with men's within the next decade.

Equipment

The raw revolution: 9.2% to 64.6%

Two decades ago, raw lifting (no supportive squat suit or bench shirt) was a fringe of the sport at 9.2% of entries. In 2025 it was the default: 64.6% of all competition entries were raw.

The shift reflects both the rise of raw-focused federations and a cultural move away from equipped lifting's steep equipment learning curve. The practical effect: the records and totals most lifters compare themselves against today are raw numbers, which is a meaningful break from the equipped-dominated era that preceded it.

Records

Records are falling faster than ever

Of the 3,852 standing all-time records tracked in this dataset, 506 of them (13%) were set in just the last 24 months. The all-time record book is being rewritten in real time.

This concentration is what you would expect when a sport is both growing and getting deeper: a larger, more competitive field at the top means standing marks get challenged and broken far more often than in the sport's slower decades. The chart below counts records that currently stand, grouped by the year they were set.

Browse the full records database →

Global reach

From 35 countries to 84

In 2005, sanctioned meets in this dataset took place across 35 countries. By 2025 that had grown to 84 countries, with 131 countries represented across the full historical record.

The tables below show where the sport is densest today: the federations sanctioning the most entries, and the countries producing the most competition volume in the last full year of data.

The heaviest lifters

The biggest totals of the past 12 months

These are the largest competition totals recorded in the trailing 12 months of data, raw and equipped combined, separated by sex. They put the abstract growth numbers into human terms: this is what the very top of the sport looks like right now.

Where lifters compete

The most popular weight classes

Competition entries cluster heavily in a handful of weight classes. The most contested divisions in the last full year, by total entries, are below for each sex.