Swimming Sees Biggest Rise In Participation
A survey by Sport England has shown that swimming remains the country’s most popular participation sport with 7.63% of the English population, equating to 3,219,900, individuals regularly getting in the pool.
The result comes after a significant increase in the number of people aged 55 and over participating in the sport – reflecting the government’s ‘Free Swimming scheme’ for the over 60s which launched in April 2009.
The report, that covers the period from January 2009 to January 2010, shows that the number of people going to their local pools and swimming for 30 minutes or more at least once per week rose to over 3.2 million.
The number of males participating in swimming has increased, and the ASA is confident that initiatives are in place to soon see a similar rise in female participation rates.
Regionally the East Midlands and North West showed the highest increases in participation.
The survey also showed increased participation across a number of sports as the number of adults aged 16 and over, who play sport at least three times a week, has reached 7 million.
