Ukulele Popularity Statistics: Classroom Growth and a Sales Correction

By ABC Academy of Music teaching team · Updated August 2026

Ukulele sales in the US tell one story. Ukulele use in classrooms tells a different one. US sales data shows a pandemic boom that has since cooled off. UK survey data on kids’ music learning shows the opposite: steady growth from almost nothing. Both are true at the same time. Together they explain why ukulele is still such a common first instrument, even though stores sell fewer of them than a few years back. Below is what the real data shows. See our best age to start music lessons article for how families usually pick a first instrument. 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

A large US industry report (2025) tracks this closely. US retail value for ukuleles climbed from $90.0 million in 2015 to a peak of $142.0 million in 2021. That was the same year the wider fretted-instrument market, which includes guitars and basses, had its biggest year ever. Pandemic lockdowns and stimulus money drove the boom. That peak did not last. Value fell to $135.0 million in 2022. It dropped hard to $69.0 million in 2023. It edged up to $70.3 million in 2024, a small gain of 1.4 percent in units sold.

Even with that 2024 uptick, the report is blunt: current demand is less than half of 2019 levels. It called the earlier boom a fad that has likely run its course. Ukuleles now make up just 2.9 percent of US fretted-instrument sales value. That is small next to acoustic guitars (34.1 percent) and electric guitars (34.3 percent). See our guitar lessons statistics for the full guitar picture. The average ukulele sold for just under $100 in 2024. That makes it one of the cheaper instruments this report tracks.

It helps to compare that to the wider category. Fretted instruments as a whole grew 38.1 percent in US sales value over the past 10 years, driven mostly by guitars. Ukulele did not share in that growth. Its own 10-year sales trend is a net decline of about 22 percent, even counting the 2021 spike.

Outside the US, the picture looks steadier. A Japanese industry source says demand for ukuleles there stayed solid. Many players who started during the pandemic are now buying a second instrument.

Classrooms Tell a Different Story: Ukulele Replacing the Recorder

While retail sales cooled, ukulele’s place in UK music classrooms grew from almost nothing. A large UK survey (2021) found that ukulele use in whole-class teaching rose from 1 percent in 2014 to 15 percent in 2020. Over the same years, the recorder saw a 47 percent drop in players. Recorder is the instrument ukulele is replacing most directly. The survey’s own finding: ukuleles appear to be taking the recorder’s place for whole-class teaching.

That shift shows up in personal play, too. The same UK survey found 9 percent of kids played ukulele in 2020; there is no matching 2014 figure, since the instrument barely showed up back then. A newer UK survey (2025) confirms the trend held. Electric guitar, drum kit, flute, violin, and ukulele have all grown among kids in recent years. Recorder use has leveled off at 16 percent in 2024, close to flat since 2020.

Private teachers have followed the same path, more slowly. The 2025 survey found ukulele and acoustic guitar now make the list of most common instruments UK teachers teach, with 8 percent of teachers now teaching ukulele. That is real growth from almost nothing. Still, neither ukulele nor acoustic guitar cracked the top 10 taught instruments in 2024. Piano (76 percent) and music theory (57 percent) still lead by far.

Who Plays Ukulele: A Clear Gender Pattern

The 2021 UK survey found a clear gender split that has held since 2014. Boys are more likely to pick drum kit or electric guitar. Girls are more likely to pick recorder, violin, or ukulele — a pattern we also cover in our drum lessons statistics article. Among girls in 2020: 18 percent leaned toward recorder, 15 percent violin, 12 percent ukulele. Among boys: 15 percent leaned toward drums, 14 percent electric guitar. The two lists barely overlap. That is part of why the recorder-to-ukulele shift looks different by gender. Both instruments are usually taught to a whole class, not chosen one by one. Families choosing ukulele lessons for a daughter are following a well-documented pattern, not an unusual one.

Why Kids Choose It

The 2025 UK survey found a simple reason ukulele keeps showing up as a first instrument: kids like the sound, and their school already offers it. In other words, what is available drives choice as much as taste does, maybe more. A price under $100 helps too. So does a small size that fits small hands, and four strings instead of six. All of this explains why schools reach for ukulele when they move away from recorder.

This next point is not ukulele-specific, but it matters. Across all instruments, the 2025 UK survey found that age eight is the single most common starting age. Three in four learners start before age 12. Ukulele fits well inside that window.

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 Lawrence Park and Oakwood/Conway (St. Clair West) studios. 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.