What a Week of Youth Sports Camp Costs in Every State (2026)
A full-day week of youth sports camp costs about $395 in the US. In Connecticut the average week is $599. In New Hampshire, its New England neighbour, it is $300. We checked 1,586 full-day camps with published prices, state by state, to find out what families really pay and why the same week costs more than twice as much in some places.
- An average full-day week of youth sports camp costs $395. A half-day week costs about $219.
- The priciest states are Utah, Connecticut, New Mexico, Vermont and Illinois. The cheapest are West Virginia, South Dakota, Mississippi, Louisiana and New Hampshire.
- Who runs the camp matters as much as where it is: a city rec week costs about $232, a college or elite week about $474.
- In the Dakotas, full-day camps are rare. Most kids go to short clinics of one to three hours a day.
What we mean by a week of camp
Camp prices are hard to compare. One camp charges $150 for three mornings, another $600 for five full days. So we put every camp on the same footing: a camp week is five days of full-day camp, at least five hours a day. We took each session's price, worked out the cost per day, and multiplied by five. The daily hours come from each camp's own page.
Half-day camps (three to five hours a day) are priced separately. Short clinics of under three hours a day and overnight camps are left out of the week price, because they are different products.
What an average week costs
The average full-day week is $395: half the camps we found cost less, and half cost more. One camp in ten costs under $206, usually a city or community program. One in ten costs more than $690, usually a college or specialist camp.
The map splits camps into three price levels with the same lines for the whole country: Low under $325 (these average $234), Medium $325 to $475 (average $395) and High over $475 (average $676).
Where camp costs the most
Utah tops the list at $624 for an average full-day week, followed by Connecticut at $599, New Mexico at $533, Vermont at $495 and Illinois at $492. Utah is the surprise. It is not an expensive state in most ways, and its county rec camps are among the cheapest anywhere at about $141 a week, but its private club and college camps charge more than the same kinds of camps almost anywhere else.
Connecticut is the clearest case of a pricey market. Every kind of camp costs more there: a city rec week runs about $299, a private club week $521 and a college camp week $657.
Where camp costs the least
West Virginia has the lowest average full-day week at $252, though it rests on just 10 full-day camps. South Dakota ($275) and Mississippi ($276) follow, then New Hampshire and Louisiana at $300. New Hampshire stands out: it sits next door to Connecticut, yet its camps of every kind, from city rec to college, cluster around $300 a week, half the Connecticut price.
The Dakotas run on clinics, not camps
Full-day camps are rare in the Dakotas. That is not a gap in the research. It is how youth sports work there: university, school and club programs mostly run one- to three-hour clinics. In South Dakota we found 30 short clinics and 11 full-day camps, just enough to price an average week of $275. In North Dakota we found only 5 full-day camps, so its average week of about $463 is an estimate that blends those camps with neighbouring Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota. For many families there, the real choice is a clinic or a half-day camp, which runs under $200 a week.
What a week of camp costs a family
A high price does not always mean a heavy bill. What matters to a family is the price against what they earn. In a typical state, one full-day week of camp takes about 23% of a week's pay for a family on the state's median income.
In New Mexico it takes 41%, the heaviest hit in the country, followed by Utah at 32% and Connecticut at 31%. In New Hampshire it takes 14%, and in Hawaii and South Dakota about 17%.
Who runs the camp matters as much as where it is
The biggest driver of price is not the state. It is who runs the camp. Across the US, an average full-day week costs:
- $232 at a city or county rec camp
- $325 at a YMCA or nonprofit camp
- $380 at a private club camp
- $474 at a college or elite camp
Because of this, we weight every state's average week to the national mix of camp types. A state where we happened to find mostly college camps does not look pricier than it is, and one where we found mostly rec camps does not look cheaper.
What each sport costs
Soccer and basketball are the backbone of camp: together they make up about four in ten full-day camps, at about $389 and $359 a week. The priciest sports need ice, a course, courts or a specialist coach. Hockey runs $715 a week, golf $688, tennis $619 and lacrosse $600. Football is the cheapest at $250, followed by multi-sport at $302 and gymnastics at $310. Hover over a sport to see how many camps it rests on.
Explore every state
The full map shows every state at every price level, with towns, a written breakdown of each state's camp market, and a side-by-side compare tool.
Open the full map in its own page
What this means if you run a camp
If you set prices for a camp, the national average is the wrong benchmark. A $400 week is premium in New Hampshire and ordinary in Connecticut. Three things are worth checking:
- Price against your state, not the country. Find where your week sits inside your own state's low, medium and high levels.
- Know who you compete with. A family comparing you with a $232 rec camp is making a different decision from one comparing you with a $474 college camp.
- Give a reason for a premium. Elite coaching, small groups, better facilities or longer days. Families pay more when they can see why.
Get the 2027 numbers first
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How we built this
We collected published prices for youth sports camps for kids aged 5 to 17 in all 50 states and Washington DC, from each camp's own website, for the 2025, 2026 or 2027 season. Every price was checked against its page, and the daily hours were checked too. A camp week is five days of full-day camp (five or more hours a day), priced as the cost per day times five. The average week is the middle price, so a few very cheap or very expensive camps cannot pull it around. Each state's average week is weighted to the national mix of camp types. A state needs at least 10 full-day camps for its own price (North Dakota, with 5, is estimated by blending its camps with its neighbours), and at least 5 camps at a price level to be ranked at that level. Income figures come from the US Census Bureau.