Last year saw remarkable advancements for women's competitive jiu-jitsu. 


The IBJJF offered equal pay-outs for the top-ranked female black belts at the end of the season, and last year's No. 1 Mackenzie Dern (view profile) made the list of 2016's Top Earners in jiu-jitsu.

Fight To Win made history with the very first women's professional main event and followed it up with another female main event in September. 

Other professional jiu-jitsu promotions such as Submission Underground, Five Grappling and more have made efforts to include women's superfight matches among their main card line-ups.

And all signs point to a solid increase in the number of women taking part in jiu-jitsu competitions. 

Women's divisions across the board - all belt levels and all ages - were noticeably larger in 2016. But exactly how much larger? 

To get a better idea of this, we analyzed the five biggest IBJJF gi events - Worlds, Pans, Masters Worlds, Europeans, and the Brasileiros (Brazilian Nationals) - over the last three years. 

For those five events alone, 2016 boasted a total of 2,303 registrations in the women's divisions (adult and masters), which was 23.5% larger than the prior year (1,865 registrations) and 48.4% larger than in 2014 (1,552 registrations). 

Check out the growth of women's competitive jiu-jitsu over the last three years. 

Total number of registrations and % of growth

The overall number of women competing continues to grow, with some competitions experiencing as much as a 60% increase in competitors.

Europeans
2014 (279)
2015 (375) Up 34.4% (2014-2015)
2016 (421) Up 12.3% (2015-2016) 

Brasileiros
2014 (208) 
2015 (306) Up 47.1% (2014-2015)
2016 (401) Up 31.0% (2015-2016) 

Pans
2014 (393)
2015 (423) Up 7.6% (2014-2015)
2016 (511) Up 20.8% (2015-2016) 

Masters Worlds
2014 (184)
2015 (254) Up 38.0% (2014-2015)
2016 (407) Up 60.2% (2015-2016) 

Worlds
2014 (488)
2015 (507) Up 3.9% (2014-2015)
2016 (563) Up 11.0% (2015-2016)

2015-2016 Breakdown by Belt  

Total #, Percentage of Yearly Total, % Change 

2015 
374 white belts (20.1% of total)
780 blue belts (41.8% of total)
394 purple belts (21.1% of total)
168 brown belts (9% of total)
149 black belts (8% of total)

2016 
392 white belts (17% of total, up 4.8%)
932 blue belts (40.5% of total, up 19.5%)
557 purple belts (24.2% of total, up 41.4%)
228 brown belts (9.9% of total, up 35.7%)
194 black belts (8.4% of total, up 30.2%)