Ukulele sales in the United States tell one story. Ukulele use in classrooms tells a different one. Industry sales data shows a pandemic-era boom that has since cooled sharply, while UK survey data on children’s music learning shows the opposite: a steady climb from a near-standing start. Both are true at the same time, and together they explain why the ukulele still shows up so often as a child’s first instrument even as retailers report a slower market than a few years ago. Below is what the primary data actually shows, drawn from a US industry sales report and a UK survey of thousands of children, adults, and music teachers. For the full set of data behind our program decisions, see our full Music Education Research hub.
US Ukulele Sales: A Pandemic Boom, Then a Steep Correction
According to the National Association of Music Merchants’ 2025 Global Report, US retail value for ukuleles climbed from $90.0 million in 2015 to a peak of $142.0 million in 2021, the same year the broader fretted instrument market (guitars, basses, ukuleles, amps, and strings) posted its biggest year on record on the back of pandemic lockdowns and stimulus spending. That peak did not hold. Retail value fell to $135.0 million in 2022 and then dropped sharply to $69.0 million in 2023, before edging up slightly to $70.3 million in 2024, a 2024 gain of 1.4 percent in unit shipments to 710,000 units, up from 700,000 units in 2023.
Even with that small 2024 uptick, NAMM’s report is blunt about where the category stands: “Current demand remains less than half of 2019 levels when uke shipments totaled 1.6 million units. The steep decline suggests that the fad propelling uke sales may have run its course.” Ukuleles now account for 2.9 percent of US fretted instrument retail value, a small slice next to acoustic guitars (34.1 percent) and electric guitars (34.3 percent). Dividing 2024’s $70.3 million in retail value by 710,000 units works out to an average retail price just under $100 per instrument, one of the more affordable categories NAMM tracks.
It is worth separating that number from a different one in the same report: fretted instruments as a whole, a category dominated by acoustic and electric guitars, grew 38.1 percent in US retail value over the past 10 years. Ukulele did not share in that growth. Measured the same way, from 2015’s $90.0 million to 2024’s $70.3 million, ukulele’s own 10-year retail value trend is a net decline of roughly 22 percent, even after accounting for the 2021 spike.
Outside the US, the picture is steadier. NAMM’s Japan chapter, in commentary from Japan Music Trades president Shiko Onodera, reports “solid demand for ukuleles, with people who started playing them during the COVID-19 pandemic also replacing their old ones,” suggesting that at least some of the players who picked up the instrument during lockdown have stuck with it long enough to buy a second one.
Classrooms Tell a Different Story: Ukulele Replacing the Recorder
While retail sales cooled, ukulele’s place in UK music classrooms grew from almost nothing. ABRSM’s Making Music 2021 report, based on a nationally representative survey of children, adults, and music teachers, found that ukulele use in whole-class ensemble teaching rose from 1 percent in 2014 to 15 percent in 2020. Over the same period, the recorder, the instrument ukulele is most directly displacing, saw a 47 percent decrease in the proportion of people playing it. The report’s own conclusion: “The data appears to suggest that ukuleles are replacing the recorder as a popular instrument for whole class ensemble teaching.”
That shift also shows up in how many children personally play the instrument. ABRSM found 9 percent of children played ukulele in 2020; there was no comparable figure for 2014, since the instrument barely registered in the earlier survey. ABRSM’s newer Making Music 2025 report, “Extending Our Ambition for Music Education in the UK,” confirms the trend continued: electric guitar, drum kit, flute, violin, and ukulele “have all shown an increase among children compared to previous years,” while recorder use has leveled off at 16 percent of children in 2024, essentially flat against 15 percent in 2020 after its steep earlier decline.
Private music teachers have followed the same path, more slowly. ABRSM’s 2025 report notes that “in 2024 we see instruments such as the ukulele and acoustic guitar now making the list of most common instruments taught,” with 8 percent of surveyed teachers reporting they teach ukulele. That is real growth from a standing start, but the same report is direct about its limits: “Of the most common instruments taught, neither ukulele nor acoustic guitar featured in the top 10 in 2024.” Piano (76 percent) and music theory (57 percent) still dominate what private teachers offer.
Who Plays Ukulele: A Clear Gender Pattern
ABRSM’s 2021 survey also found a consistent gender split in instrument choice that has held since 2014. Boys are more likely than girls to choose the drum kit or electric guitar, while girls are more likely than boys to play the recorder, violin, and ukulele. Among girls surveyed in 2020, the report recorded 18 percent more likely to play recorder, 15 percent violin, and 12 percent ukulele. Among boys in the same survey, the top preferences ran the other way: 15 percent more likely to play drums and 14 percent electric guitar. The two lists barely overlap, which is part of why the recorder-to-ukulele shift in classrooms plays out differently by gender even though both instruments are typically assigned to a whole class rather than chosen individually. Families looking into ukulele lessons for a daughter are, statistically, following a well-documented pattern rather than an unusual one.
Why Kids Choose It
ABRSM’s 2025 report offers a straightforward explanation for why ukulele keeps showing up as a first or early instrument: “Underlining the widespread use and availability of the ukulele and violin in schools, learners say they chose these instruments because of liking the sound and that their school offered it.” In other words, availability drives choice as much as, or more than, any specific preference for the instrument itself. Combined with a retail price averaging under $100, a size that suits small hands, and four strings instead of six, that availability is a large part of why schools reach for the ukulele when they move away from the recorder for whole-class teaching.
None of this is ukulele-specific, but it is worth noting how young most instrumental learners start in general. Across all instruments, ABRSM’s 2025 data found that eight years old is the single age at which most children begin, and three-quarters of all learners started before age 12. Ukulele fits comfortably inside that window without requiring an unusually early or late start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ukulele really the fastest-growing beginner instrument?
Not by US retail sales, which peaked in 2021 and have since fallen by more than half. But by participation in UK classrooms, yes: ABRSM recorded ukulele use in whole-class teaching rising from 1 percent in 2014 to 15 percent in 2020, a bigger proportional jump than any other instrument tracked in that survey. The honest answer depends on whether you are measuring what stores sell or what students actually play.
What age should my child start ukulele lessons?
ABRSM’s research does not break down starting age by instrument, but across all instruments, most children begin around age 8, and three in four start before age 12. Our Private Lessons program takes ukulele students well within that range.
Is ukulele more popular with girls than boys?
Based on ABRSM’s 2020 data, yes. Girls were more likely than boys to choose recorder, violin, and ukulele, while boys leaned toward drum kit and electric guitar. That is a stated preference pattern, not a rule; plenty of boys take up ukulele and do well with it.
How much does a beginner ukulele typically cost?
Based on 2024 US industry sales data, dividing total retail value by units sold works out to an average price just under $100 per instrument, making ukulele one of the more affordable ways to start a fretted instrument.
Ukulele Lessons at ABC Academy of Music
We teach ukulele as part of our Private Lessons program alongside piano, guitar, voice, and drums, at our studios in Lawrence Park, St. Clair West, Dufferin Grove and Oakwood, and Brampton. Whether your child is coming from a school recorder program or starting fresh, our teachers can tell you in a first lesson whether ukulele is the right fit before you commit to a full term. Check our class schedule, review rates and payment options, or contact us to find a ukulele teacher near you.
SOURCES:
- National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), “The 2025 NAMM Global Report,” NAMM, 2025, https://www.namm.org/sites/default/files/2025-11/NAMM2025GlobalReportV3.pdf
- ABRSM, “Learning, Playing and Teaching in the UK in 2021: ABRSM Making Music Report 2021,” ABRSM, 2021, https://www.abrsm.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/web_abrsm-making-music-uk-21.pdf
- ABRSM, “Making Music 2025: Extending Our Ambition for Music Education in the UK,” ABRSM, 2025, https://www.abrsm.org/sites/default/files/2025-04/Making%20Music%202025%20-%20Extending%20our%20Ambition%20for%20Music%20Education%20in%20the%20UK.pdf