Minister Cullen Releases Latest Irish Sports Council/ESRI Research

• More people playing sport in Ireland today than in the past

• 76% of adult sport is individual rather than team sports

• Regular participation in sport is equivalent to being 14 years younger

The number of people engaged in exercise activities has increased dramatically, particularly in the last twenty years. Young adults play much more sport than their parent’s generation and are therefore likely to participate more as older adults.

Playing sport improves people’s health, but having played sport in the past means people are more likely to enjoy good current health too.

This is the key finding of the Economic and Social Research Institute / Irish Sports Council latest publication “Sporting Lives: An Analysis of a Lifetime of Irish Sport”. The publication takes a longer-term perspective on Irish Sport and in particular how participation in sport and exercise in Ireland has changed over recent decades and how it varies across the life course, from childhood to later adulthood.

The research also found that many people drop out from team sports as teenagers and young adults while individual sports are played much more into adulthood. The rapid rise of individual sports, especially personal exercise activities such as going to the gym, aerobics, swimming and jogging is notable. Participation in team sports declines over the life course. The report highlights the relative decline of participation in Gaelic Games over several decades.

Minister Cullen commented: “The report concludes that, in fact, we are playing more sport in Ireland than previous generations. That is an extremely positive outcome and one that, collectively, we should be very pleased with. The report is not without its challenges. There are significant gender and socio-economic gaps in sports participation and major issues for team sports”.

The research estimates that current regular participation in sport is equivalent, in health terms, to being 14 years younger. Playing sport in the past is also likely to be good for current health. The report estimates that the health difference between someone with low past participation and someone with high past participation is equivalent to being three years younger.

The gender gap in sports participation is affirmed in the report. Adult women are as likely to take up sport as adult men with the gap arising from different experiences of sport as children.The data suggests that the different treatment of young girls opens up a sporting gender gap that never closes.

The report also highlights the gap in participation between different socio-economic groups. The differences endure and strengthen across a person’s life and the research recommends interventions with children as young as five to ten years of age, to tackle the problem.

NOTES:

• The report is the fifth study conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in conjunction with the Irish Sports Council, and follows previous publications; “Sports Participation and Health among adults in Ireland” (2004), “Fair Play? Sport and the Social Disadvantage in Ireland” (2006), “School Children and Sport in Ireland” (2005) and “Social and Economic Value of Sport in Ireland” (2005).
• Young adults are playing significantly more sport than current older adults did when they were younger. They are also likely to play much more sport as older adults. For example 78% of respondents aged 18 - 29 in 2003 were playing sport regularly at age 15 compared to 66% of those aged 30 – 49, and 44% of those aged 50 years or more.
• Participation in individual sports has substantially outstripped participation in team sports over the recent decades. The report indicates that 76% of all adult (i.e. over the age of 18) sport consists of individual activities rather than team based sports.
• For individual activities, significant increases have been seen in exercise activities, jogging, swimming and golf while in the case of team sports soccer, basketball and rugby have grown but participation in GAA games has been in relative decline.
• Sports participation peaks at age 15 immediately following which there is a sharp drop followed by a gentler decline during adulthood. The fall-off in late teens is primarily due to adolescents giving up team sports.
• There are strong gender and socio-economic gaps in participation.
• Up to the age of 10, boys play more sport and a large gender gap in participation opens up. The gender gap closes during early second-level school years when more girls take up sport but this is short-lived as the team sports that girls are introduced to in these years tend to be short lived in appeal. The result is that by age 20, 66% of male respondents were playing sport compared to 36% of female respondents. However, as adults, women are as likely to take up sport and drop out of sport at the same rates as men suggesting that women are as interested in sport as men if given the same opportunities.
• In contrast, the impact of social disadvantage, measured by educational attainment and income levels, also starts young but continues to widen in adulthood. Those from higher socio-economic groups are far more likely to take up new sports and less likely to drop out of sport in young adulthood. The gap is particularly strong in individual sports where participation among the higher socio-economic groups does not peak until into people’s thirties.
• People who participate in sport and exercise across the life course generally experience better physical and mental health than non-participants. The research estimates that current regular participation in sport is equivalent, in health terms, to being 14 years younger. Playing sport in the past is also likely to be good for current health. The report estimates that the health difference between someone with low past participation and someone with high past participation is equivalent to being three years younger.

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