Sport participation

IBISWorld expects that sport participation by this measure to be 63.9% in 2025-26, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the previous year. Over the five years through 2025-26, the proportion of people participating in sport is estimated to inch upwards. Historically, sport participation has always been higher among employed people than the unemployed and higher for those with more disposable income. High unemployment and squeezed incomes at the start of the period constrained sports participation. There has also been a distinct shift in type of participation as skiing and golf fell out of favour for cheaper activities, such as road running. For much of the period, economic uncertainty squeezed household income which deflated sports participation rates. While sports activity has risen over the period, the level of people considered inactive (less than 30 minutes of exercise each week) has fallen, from 27.2% in 2020-21 to 25.1% in 2023-24.

In 2020-21, sports participation was significantly impacted by a wave of lockdown restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. For large parts of the year, all non-professional team sports were forced to be cancelled, while gyms and leisure centres were forced to temporarily close. However, a significant proportion of the population participated in at least one form of outdoor exercise, one of few activities permitted during lockdown periods, which supported the participation rate during the year. Overall, the 2020-21 Active Lives Adult Survey reports that sports activity fell 1.9 percentage points, to 60.9%.