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America's Most Underserved Judo Cities (2026)

The flip side of the judo capitals: big American cities where you can barely find a dojo inside the city limits. These are the 30 most populous US cities (100,000+ residents) with zero or one judo dojo in our 856-dojo national directory — 15.8 million people between them. If you've ever thought about opening a judo dojo, this is the market-gap list. Updated 2026-07-19.

The list

Top of the table: Dallas, Texas — 1,326,087 people, no judo dojo. The biggest city with none at all is Dallas, Texas (1,326,087 residents — 12 of the 30 cities are at zero). Many of these are big suburbs in major metros, which is exactly the point: the anchor city's dojos are a drive away, and the local walk-in market is unclaimed.

#CityPopulationJudo dojos in directory
1 Dallas, TX 1,326,087 0
2 Charlotte, NC 943,476 0
3 Columbus, OH 933,263 0
4 Louisville, KY 793,881 1
5 Nashville, TN 729,505 1
6 Washington, DC 702,250 1
7 El Paso, TX 681,723 1
8 Boston, MA 673,458 1
9 Detroit, MI 645,705 0
10 Milwaukee, WI 563,531 1
11 Tucson, AZ 554,013 1
12 Fresno, CA 550,105 0
13 Kansas City, MO 516,032 1
14 Virginia Beach, VA 454,808 1
15 Long Beach, CA 450,901 0
16 Oakland, CA 443,554 0
17 Minneapolis, MN 428,579 1
18 Aurora, CO 403,130 1
19 Cleveland, OH 365,379 1
20 New Orleans, LA 362,701 1
21 Henderson, NV 350,039 0
22 Anaheim, CA 344,561 1
23 Lexington, KY 329,437 1
24 Stockton, CA 324,975 1
25 Irvine, CA 318,683 0
26 Corpus Christi, TX 317,317 1
27 Newark, NJ 317,303 0
28 Santa Ana, CA 316,184 1
29 Cincinnati, OH 314,915 0
30 St. Paul, MN 307,465 0

Read it fairly: counts are within city limits. Aurora trains in Denver; Mesa drives to Phoenix. "Underserved" here means no local dojo — not that residents have never stepped on a mat.

Cite this data

Suggested attribution: “America's Most Underserved Judo Cities” — JudoClasses.net, 2026, linked to https://www.judoclasses.net/judo-stats/underserved/. The tables are CC BY 4.0: chart them, quote them, publish them — just link back. Want a custom cut (by state, metro, or discipline)? Email us.

Download the full CSV Data updated 2026-07-19

Methodology: dojo counts from our continuously maintained national directory of 856 judo dojos (public business listings, filtered to genuine judo dojos with judo on the schedule). City universe = incorporated places and consolidated city-governments with 100,000+ residents, US Census 2024 estimates; census names normalized to everyday names (Nashville-Davidson → Nashville) so no city is falsely flagged. Dojos are matched to cities by the city name on their address. Refreshed with each re-crawl — cities graduate off this list when a dojo opens. Browse what nearby markets look like instead: dojos by state, or the full stats hub.