Sports participation in England

Sport England has recently published a series of sports information packs for 42 sports which bring together research data from the Active People Survey, Taking Part Survey and Sport England’s market segmentation research.

The packs provide a detailed overview of each sport with data and analysis including:

• Participation data by key demographic groups
• Demographic profile of participants
• Seasonal and regional participation rates
• Participation rates among 11-15 year olds
• Drop off rates among 16-18 year olds
• Organised sport
• Information from Sport England’s market segmentation

As riders are currently competing in this year’s Tour de France with Britain’s Mark Cavendish hitting the headlines with an unprecedented four stage victories in the opening two weeks of the Tour, I thought I’d take a quick look at the Cycling information pack.

The information pack begins with some summary information on participation in cycling. For example, there are 1.25 million male and 512,000 female participants in the sport, and it is predicted to grow by 0.5 percent from 10.4% to 10.9% between 2005 and 2013.

It then provides a more detailed participation profile for the sport providing data and charts for various demographics. Some of the data provided allows comparisons between the nine English regions. The West Midlands has the lowest participation rate of the nine regions according to the data from the Active People Survey at 3.8%.

Market segmentation is provided which aims to help understanding to attract new participants and keep existing participants in the sport.

Sport England also provides comparative data for all of the sports in Excel format permitting researchers to compare data for all of the sports, including participation by region and by county.