Further Swimming Decline In Latest Figures
A further drop in the number of people swimming once a week has again been confirmed in the latest grassroots sports participation figures, published on Thursday.
The statistics, covering the six month period from October 2014 to March 2015, show that 15.5 million people did some kind of sport once a week, every week – 222,000 fewer than six months ago.
But swimming, the country’s most popular sport with over 2.5 million people taking part weekly, has seen 144,200 fewer people taking to the pool in the last six months and 390,700 in the last year, with 729,000 people stopping swimming in the last decade.
The other significant drop was seen in the keepfit and gym sector, down 153,000 – the first dip in numbers since Sport England began measuring the sector.
The results come from Sport England’s Active People Survey, which measures the number of people taking part in sport across the nation and in local communities.
Sport England’s chief executive, Jennie Price, said: “These are really disappointing results. This is especially the case for swimming, where a serious, long-term decline needs to be reversed.
“Whilst we’ve seen the number of people playing sport increase by 1.4 million since we won the right to host the London 2012 Games, these results highlight that our current investment model has delivered all the growth available in the traditional markets for sport.
“We have already started working with a wider range of partners and will be looking further at with whom we work, and what we invest in, to get more people playing sport. For example in basketball, we are now working closely with a number of charities and these results show that basketball is on the rise.”
However, the latest figures do show improvements for the likes of running, up 63,000 to 2.1 million a week; tennis, up 38,200 to 422,400 a week, and basketball, up 21,800 to 152,900 a week.
There is also reassuring news for team sports in the latest figures, with 2.7 million people playing once a week, including football, both codes of rugby, hockey and netball.
The number of 16-25 year olds playing sport remains stable at 3.8 million once a week, according to the report, while the number of people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds playing sport has increased by 37,600 to 2.9 million.
The number of disabled people who play sport is down 37,300 overall, in large measure due to the decline in swimming and gym, although some popular disabled sports, such as football, tennis and running, are seeing positive increases.
Meanwhile, the gender gap in sport has reduced slightly in the last six months, with 6.86 million women playing sport once a week compared to 8.63 million men.
