More Young People Playing Sport

New figures from Sport England show that 15.3 million people are playing

sport at least once a week, with good progress among young people.

The figures – covering the period to mid-April - show that 1.4 million more

men and women are playing sport every week than in 2005ii when London

won the bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and that most of the

increase seen around the Games in 2012 has been retained.

When the figures were last published in December 2012 they showed 750,000

more people playing sport than the previous year. Six months on, despite the

coldest March for 50 years, growth of 530,000 has been maintained.

Sports such as football, golf and even cycling, one of the strongest performing

sports of recent years, have all been affected. British Cycling Chief Executive

Ian Drake said: "Our membership continues to feel the benefit of our

successes in London 2012 and the ‘Wiggo effect’ with year-on-year growth for

May hitting 54%, and the number of events growing strongly. We were

expecting a dip in the harshest couple of months, but our own data shows

rapid recovery in April and May."

The number of young people aged between 16 and 25 playing sport regularly

has reached 3.86 million. This is an increase of nearly 63,000 on the previous

12 months, with strong advances in sports such as basketball and swimming.

Among women, boosts in boxing and netball have helped to drive a year-onyear

increase of 89,900, further narrowing the gender gap in sport.

Although there is still an unacceptable gap between the number of disabled

people and non-disabled people playing sport, the figures for disabled people

have been rising steadily since 2005. The latest figures show an increase of

46,600v over the past year with Paralympic sports like equestrianism and

athletics growing in popularity.

Sport England’s Chair, Nick Bitel, said: "These figures show we’re holding

onto the growth achieved over the past 18 months, despite some poor recent weather. There’s a long way to go but it’s

particularly encouraging to see thenumbers for young people are now moving in the right direction."

Minister for Sport and Tourism, Hugh Robertson, said: "We remain absolutely

committed to delivering a lasting sports participation legacy from London

2012. The long term trend shows we are on track, with 1.4 million more

people playing sport regularly since we won the bid in 2005. I am encouraged

to see good underlying trends in the number of young people, women and

disabled people playing sport regularly and confident we have the right

strategy in place to continue to deliver long term increases in the number of

people playing sport."

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