Best UK areas to open a soft play

We combine local child population (ONS Census 2021) with the number of existing soft play venues (Google Places, 2026-08-21) to show where demand outstrips supply. A higher gap ratio means more children per venue than the UK average — a signal of unmet demand.

Area	Children	Venues	Gap	Est. revenue
Barnet	73,975	4	1.32×	£213,000
Birmingham	251,878	19	0.95×	£544,000
Stockport	53,064	4	0.95×	£115,000
Bradford	131,136	11	0.85×	£260,000
Cardiff	61,608	7	0.63×	£133,000
Swindon	44,346	5	0.63×	£96,000
Leeds	146,160	18	0.58×	£316,000
Wirral	54,434	7	0.56×	£118,000
Edinburgh	73,706	10	0.53×	£186,000
Glasgow	101,621	16	0.45×	£220,000
Wolverhampton	50,103	8	0.45×	£99,000
Manchester	99,360	17	0.42×	£215,000
Croydon	78,142	15	0.37×	£197,000
Liverpool	82,637	17	0.35×	£164,000
Sheffield	94,605	20	0.34×	£204,000
Peterborough	47,454	10	0.34×	£94,000
Leicester	73,720	16	0.33×	£146,000
Huddersfield	88,080	19	0.33×	£174,000
Preston	28,082	6	0.33×	£56,000
Bristol	75,584	17	0.32×	£177,000
Coventry	62,154	14	0.32×	£123,000
Newham	73,718	17	0.31×	£173,000
Ealing	69,751	16	0.31×	£188,000
Norwich	21,600	5	0.31×	£43,000
Belfast	62,172	15	0.3×	£123,000
Enfield	69,319	17	0.29×	£162,000
Bournemouth	64,048	16	0.29×	£138,000
Bromley	62,584	16	0.28×	£180,000
Wandsworth	52,400	14	0.27×	£179,000
Redbridge	65,155	17	0.27×	£164,000
Warrington	37,962	10	0.27×	£82,000
Wigan	59,238	16	0.26×	£117,000
Sandwell	71,778	20	0.26×	£142,000
Tower Hamlets	55,854	16	0.25×	£171,000
Milton Keynes	60,270	17	0.25×	£141,000
Luton	51,819	15	0.25×	£103,000
Derby	47,052	14	0.24×	£93,000
Bolton	59,300	18	0.24×	£117,000
Walsall	56,820	17	0.24×	£113,000
Northampton	47,329	14	0.24×	£102,000
Basildon	37,400	11	0.24×	£81,000
Hackney	49,239	15	0.23×	£133,000
Nottingham	51,792	16	0.23×	£103,000
Plymouth	42,352	13	0.23×	£84,000
Wakefield	63,594	20	0.23×	£126,000
Dudley	58,248	18	0.23×	£115,000
Doncaster	55,458	17	0.23×	£110,000
Dundee	22,245	7	0.23×	£44,000
Southend-on-Sea	32,526	10	0.23×	£70,000
Stoke-on-Trent	46,512	16	0.21×	£92,000
Kingston upon Hull	48,078	17	0.2×	£95,000
Oldham	50,841	18	0.2×	£101,000
Salford	45,900	17	0.19×	£91,000
Rotherham	50,502	19	0.19×	£100,000
Lambeth	50,816	20	0.18×	£146,000
Newcastle upon Tyne	45,030	18	0.18×	£97,000
Southampton	40,592	16	0.18×	£88,000
Brighton and Hove	38,794	15	0.18×	£84,000
Swansea	38,160	15	0.18×	£76,000
Barnsley	44,028	17	0.18×	£87,000
Sunderland	44,432	19	0.17×	£88,000
Solihull	38,916	16	0.17×	£91,000
Telford	37,100	16	0.17×	£73,000
Slough	38,040	16	0.17×	£82,000
Reading	31,356	14	0.16×	£79,000
Aberdeen	34,320	15	0.16×	£80,000
York	30,420	14	0.16×	£66,000
Ipswich	26,353	12	0.16×	£52,000
Chelmsford	34,542	16	0.15×	£81,000
Maidstone	33,554	16	0.15×	£79,000
Colchester	34,686	17	0.15×	£75,000
Cheltenham	18,640	9	0.15×	£40,000
Middlesbrough	28,780	15	0.14×	£57,000
Islington	32,429	18	0.13×	£99,000
Portsmouth	33,296	19	0.13×	£66,000
Blackpool	25,398	14	0.13×	£46,000
Gateshead	31,376	18	0.12×	£62,000
Oxford	24,315	14	0.12×	£57,000
Gloucester	25,156	15	0.12×	£50,000
Cambridge	20,398	18	0.08×	£48,000
Exeter	18,312	17	0.08×	£36,000

Revenue is a planning estimate based on catchment size, not a forecast. Gap ratio above 1.0 = above-average children per venue. This is a starting point for research, not a guarantee of success.

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