Business Environment Profiles - Australia
Published: 16 May 2024
Sport participation
80 Percentage
-0.6 %
This report analyses the percentage of the Australian population that participates in sports and physical recreation, including walking, jogging and running, at least once per week during the financial year. The data for this report is sourced from Sport Australia and is measured in percentage points for each financial year.
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IBISWorld forecasts Australia's sport participation to rise by 0.90 percentage points in 2023-24, to 79.6% of the population. Sport participation is expected to gradually improve this year following four consecutive years of declines. The gradual normalisation of participation conditions following the easing of conditions tied to COVID-19 is expected to boost participation. Upward trends in health consciousness are expected to encourage growth in sport participation rates. However, cost-of-living pressures are likely to cause Australians to reduce expenditure on sports and physical recreation.
Sports participation declined for the first time in a decade in 2019-20. This was primarily due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Federal and State Government mandated lockdowns led to the suspension of community and amateur sports competitions and the closure of sports and recreation facilities. As many of these restrictions continued on into 2020-21 in some states, sports participation fell further during that year. However, exercising remained one of the few activities for which households could leave their homes, partially mitigating the decline over the period.
Sports participation rates increased at the start of the period. This was supported by state and federal initiatives, such as Sporting Schools, Move It AUS and VicHealth's program to increase female participation in sport. In April 2019, the Federal Government announced a $385.4 million package to boost sport and physical activity in Australia. As part of this funding, the Sporting Schools program received a further $40 million to extend the program through to 2020 and help boost national sports participation. Additionally, the introduction of the Women's Big Bash League in 2015-16, the start of the AFL Women's League in 2016-17 and the establishment of the NRL Women's Premiership have driven greater female participation in sport, constraining the overall decline in sporting participation. In particular, female participation on a weekly basis has grown strongly, with female participation in sport at least three times a week increasing over the three years through 2019-20.
Rising health consciousness has supported sport participation over the past five years. Physical health and fitness is a key motivation for many people taking up sports and physical recreation, with nearly two-thirds of adults citing it as one of their motivations for participation. Much of the growth in sport participation over the past five years has stemmed from physical recreation. Recreational walking for exercise is the most popular form of physical recreation, while running and jogging is the second most popular form of physical recreation. Cycling, bush walking and swimming are the next most popular types of sport and physical recreation. Overall, IBISWorld forecasts sport participation to decline at an average annual rate of 0.60 percentage points over the five years through 2023-24.
IBISWorld forecasts participation in sport to increase by 0.5 percentage points in 2024-25, to re...
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