The publication this morning of Sport England’s Active People Survey shows that the number of people playing sport once a week has dropped by 125,100.
The Active People Survey is the largest survey of sport and activity in Europe and was launched by Sport England in 2005 to measure the number of people regularly taking part in sport in England.
The latest figures show that in the last twelve months the overall number has fallen from 15.7 million to 15.6 million, with participation levels in swimming having the largest decrease of 245,000.
The Active People Survey shows that growth in participation has come from young people (16-25 year olds) with a record 4.72 million now playing sport regularly, whilst also showing that the boost in participation immediately after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has been sustained.
Whilst some sports suffered big drops, affecting the overall participation picture, many sports showed significant increases in their participation levels.
Emma Boggis, Chief Executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, said,
“Amongst all this data, there are some real success stories for sport here. It’s true that some sports are playing catch up and that there is churn between activities but there are many sports across the board reporting significant progress. We’ve got 145,000 new athletes, almost 20,000 more rugby players and 16,000 more mountaineers than this time last year, for example. Meanwhile fencing has doubled its participation base in a year. NGBs are showing that growth can be achieved in the face of some of the severe economic challenges that both they and participants are facing.”
A particularly welcome increase came in team sports, many of which recorded much higher participation levels than last year. Emma Boggis believes that this is thanks to some forward thinking by governing bodies.
“Team sport NGBs have responded to declining participation by adapting their formats and providing teams with tools like scheduling apps to make it easier to organise fixtures. The innovations put in place by NGBs are working.”
Sport England’s Chief Executive Jennie Price said about the latest figures. ““I am disappointed with these figures, and I’m very concerned about the drop in swimming, which dominates the overall picture.
“If swimming’s figures had been flat, we’d be looking at an overall increase in participation. I am encouraged by the fact that the current leadership at the ASA, and the wider swimming industry, now recognise there’s an issue and want to work together to fix it. It needs to get on with it. Swimming has lagged behind running and the gym in terms of offering an attractive, modern experience to people who want to play sport and exercise. That has to change and to change quickly.”
Swimming has already met its 2014-15 grant conditions, including changing leadership and enhancing its insight capacity as a commitment to meeting participation targets. A new board and CEO of the organisation are working to use that insight to support more swimming, with both confident that the change recorded today is a short-term blip in the statistics rather than a sustained drop.
The figures also show that there are 121,700 fewer disabled people playing sport regularly, with 1.58 million now taking part.
See more at: https://www.sportengland.org/media-centre/news/2015/january/29/nations-most-popular-sport-sees-decline/
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