RESEARCH Irish Sports Council Publishes First Irish Sports Monitor Annual Report
New Research Initiative Will Measure and Track Participation Rates
Findings include
- 24% of the adult population is highly active, 18% is sedentary.
- Participation rates in Ireland are broadly in line with developed countries but lag behind the best performers.
- Personal exercise activities (gym, fitness classes, exercise machines) have become the most popular form of physical activity
- Income and education are significant determinants of participation
- There is a high level of social participation in sport, involving volunteering, attendance and club membership numbers at sports events.
The 2007 ISM report provides a number of headline figures for participation in sport and physical activity in Ireland, which serve as benchmarks for future performance regarding physical activity, participation in sport and recreational walking, volunteering, club membership and attendance at sporting events. The report also reinforces previous research findings in relation to social and economic gradients in participation, and to the relative popularity of particular sporting activities. It also provides key new insights on issues such as Ireland's standing relative to international participation levels, seasonal and regional variations in participation, and links between nationality and playing sport.
Ossie Kilkenny, Chairman Irish Sports Council: "The value of sport is widely accepted and it has great potential to further enrich the lives of individuals and communities. We wanted to develop a resource that accurately measures engagement with sport and can evaluate the impact of various interventions, not least our own. The Monitor is a really interesting piece of work, the value of which will be demonstrated year on year as we track participation in sport over time".
Dr. Pete Lunn, ESRI economist and one of the report's authors, said: "This ongoing, large-scale project offers a new opportunity to monitor participation in Irish sport and to understand why some people are actively involved and others not. The 2007 findings suggest ways to improve policies designed to get more people actively involved in sport".
Peter Smyth, Research Manager of the Council commented "The primary aim of the Monitor is to measure participation levels in sport over a number of years and to identify any emerging trends in participation. The Monitor will be an important resource for all those making and implementing policy in their efforts to increase participation rates throughout the population."
2007 is the first annual report and will act as a baseline against which participation in future years can be assessed. The 2008 Irish Sports Monitor will be published in summer 2009.
The ISM and other joint ISC - ESRI publications in the series on sport, is available on www.irishsportscoucil.ie and www.esri.ie
Further information:
- Peter Smyth, Research Manager Irish Sports Council, 087-6846713
- Paul McDermott, Irish Sports Council, 087-6486295
Highlights of the First Irish Sports Monitor
How Active Are We
- In 2007, 24% of the adult population could be classified as "Highly Active", 28% "Fairly Active", 30% "Just Active" and 18% "Sedentary"
- 33% played sport for at least 20 minutes during the previous 7 days
- 58% went for a recreational walk of at least 20 minutes during the previous 7 days
FITT Analysis
- There was variation by season: fewer people played sport towards the end of the year
- 68% of participants played more than once a week, 69% with high effort
- 62% played their sport in a non-organised setting, with family, friends or alone
Comparison of Social Groups
- People with high educational attainment, men, younger people and those on high incomes were much more likely to play sport and much less likely to be sedentary
- The estimated impact of income on the likelihood of playing sport was even higher than previously reported
- Non-Irish nationals from outside the EU and the English-speaking countries were approximately half as likely to play sport as Irish nationals
Comparison by County/Council
- Comparing the highest performing areas with the lowest performing areas, more than two-and-a-half times as many people played sport in the previous 7 days
- Controlling for population profile, Dْn Laoghaire-Rathdown and Mayo recorded high participation
- Controlling for population profile, Dublin City, Limerick, Kildare, Offaly, Leitrim and Westmeath recorded low participation
Relative Popularity of Sports
- Personal exercise activities (going to the gym, fitness classes, exercise machines etc.) are now the most popular sport and exercise activity in Ireland, followed by swimming
- Soccer is by far the most popular team sport, but ranks poorly among women relative to other sports
- Combining volunteering, membership and attendance, Gaelic games remain the leading sports for social participation, but there are now more gym members than GAA members
Walking
- 14% of the population went for a recreational walk every day the previous week, while 42% did not take a walk at all
- Women walk more than men and seem to be a strong influence, since men in couples walk much more than single men
- 40% walk regularly for transport, although the figure is much lower in rural locations
International Comparison
- Active participation in sport and exercise in Ireland is broadly in line with participation in other developed countries
- Participation rates are nevertheless far behind those of the best performing countries, which are the Scandinavian nations and English-speaking Commonwealth nations
- Participation rates are clearly ahead of the worst performers, which tend to be Southern European nations
Social Participation
Volunteering
- 8% of adults had volunteered for sport-related activity in the previous 7 days, equivalent to 280,000 volunteers
- Disabled people who said they could not actively participate in sport were more likely to be involved as volunteers than those without a disability
- The average time devoted to volunteering in the previous 7 days was two hours, but women and, especially, men over 65 years of age devoted very much more time
Club Membership
- 32% of adults are members of sports clubs
- Disabled people over age 45 who said they could not actively participate in sport were more likely to be club members than those without a disability
- Club membership was strongly related to high income and educational attainment
Attendance
- 17% of adults had attended a sporting event in the previous 7 days
- Men were more likely to attend than women, but women with children under 18 were particularly likely to attend and more likely to attend two or three events
- Attendance was strongly affected by income and social class