It's the Taking Part that's counted

With recent big public drives to increase sporting participation and physical activity, recent figures show a fall in membership of sports clubs or organisations. David Callan, Communications Officer, looks at what could be stopping people from taking part.

The latest yearly figures from the government’s Taking Part survey were released last week. Amid the mass of statistics were some interesting nuggets of information when it comes to sport and recreation participation levels.

By way of an introduction, the Taking Part survey is an annual household survey in England that looks at participation in the ‘cultural’ sectors. It’s been running for ten years now and has built up a good body of data on English habits and participation levels when it comes to things like visiting libraries, museums, sports clubs, digital activities etc.

What was discovered is that over the twelve-month period from October 2013 to September 2014 there had been a big decrease in the number of adults involved in groups, clubs or organisations (45.7% in 2012/13 to 37.8% in 2014).

When broken down further, the most popular type of group belonged to among adults was a sports/exercise group (47.8%). However, this figure had also fallen from a 2013 level of 52.2%. This shouldn’t come as a complete surprise given the recent stories about participation levels in cricket and football.

What is interesting about this statistic is when it is held up against people’s feelings around the 2012 Olympic legacy.

When asked if the London Olympics had, “motivated you to do more sport or recreational physical activity” the response was 22.5% compared to a level of 21.4% from 2012/13.

So what is going on? Either this is a case of respondent bias and they are answering with what they think is the right response to the question, or we are slowly turning our back on groups and clubs in favour of becoming active alone, or separate from those environments.

There is probably an element of truth in both. If you look at the historical data, there is no doubt that the Olympics has had a huge positive impact in getting people active and signed up to sports clubs. Look at our most recent Sports Survey from 2013 where the numbers were most definitely on their way up. Equally, a look at our Future Trends report shows a spike in people using technology and apps to get active on their own.

What we may be experiencing is the beginning of the post-Olympic cool down in terms of participation. People with only a fleeting interest in sport might have tried their hand at something off the back of the Olympics and not become a regular at a local club. Combine this with the fact that wage growth is only just starting to increase again and many people’s finances may not cover a regular sports club membership.

That being said, it will be interesting to see what plans are put in place next year ahead of the general election and how the Government, in conjunction with recent initiatives like Everybody Active, Every Day, will try to help local clubs and local people to connect for the greater social benefit.

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