Sport participation England 2016-21

This statistic presents the number of regular participants for a range activities in England from 2015/2016 to 2020/2021, where regular participation is defined as having participated at least twice in the last 28 days, at any intensity for any duration. In 2021, 'walking for leisure' was found to be the activity group with the greatest number of regular participants having increased from 18.3 million people in 2016 to 23.9 million in 2021. Adventure sports has also shown a significant increase in participation over the study period, increasing from 2.2 million people in 2016 to approximately 3.4 million in 2021.

Number of regular* participants per activity group in England from 2016 to 2021

Characteristic	Nov 15-16	May 17-18	May 18-19	May 19-20	May 20-21
Winter sports	312,900	347,300	304,000	256,500	38,900
Bowls or boules	359,500	362,300	315,000	254,300	80,800
Roller or skating sports	144,200	181,600	173,500	159,900	126,200
Water sports	650,600	566,100	660,200	543,400	380,700
Gymnastics, trampolining or cheerleading	445,100	474,800	464,500	496,200	433,000
Combat sports, martial arts or target sports	799,900	856,000	828,200	955,100	536,800
Leisure activities and games	612,500	628,900	556,600	678,600	977,400
Racket sports	2,423,000	2,224,100	2,112,700	1,967,400	1,080,000
Team sports	3,472,200	3,196,400	3,188,400	2,896,000	1,514,900
Cycling for travel	3,195,200	3,115,900	3,139,800	2,883,700	2,542,600
Adventure sports	2,245,300	2,699,600	3,334,200	3,239,300	3,389,400
Running, athletics or multi-sports	6,931,800	6,897,200	7,088,900	6,885,500	6,883,900
Cycling for leisure and sport**	-	6,170,000	6,258,500	6,267,600	7,493,000
Walking for travel	14,044,200	14,769,800	15,247,600	13,893,300	9,355,200
Walking for leisure	18,299,800	19,162,200	19,676,200	20,382,300	23,973,600

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Release date

October 2021

More information

Region

United Kingdom (England)

Survey time period

November 2015 to May 2021

Number of respondents

172,970 respondents

Age group

16 years and older

Special properties

base varies

Method of interview

Online survey

Supplementary notes

*At least twice in the last 28 days. Any intensity, any duration.
**During the first six months of surveying, a number of respondents were double counting a gym session and the individual activities that they did within the gym. This problem was resolved by re-wording the question, however, the first point at which this data can be reported is May 16/17.

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