Christina Gough
Research expert covering sports and video gaming
Field hockey in the United Kingdom - statistics & facts
While hockey might not have the glamour of football or the global fanbase of cricket, the sport has seen its popularity in the United Kingdom boom in recent years. Between 2021 and 2023, the number of people participating in field hockey in England increased by over 50 percent. Even taking into account the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on sports participation, hockey appears to be going from strength to strength. While the share of children in participating in hockey in England dipped in 2023 compared to the previous five years, the share of hockey participants that were members of a club in England increased significantly in the same timeframe.
With hockey participation figures in the UK displaying an upward trend, Team GB will be hoping that future Olympians will take up hockey and lead their nation to gold in years to come.
Public funding for hockey
The national governing body for field hockey in England is England Hockey. The organization generates the majority of its income through government grants, while membership fees also contribute a significant amount. England Hockey invests a large amount of this income back into the game at grassroots level, funding development, coaching, and umpiring courses. In fact, the governing body invested over 2.6 million British pounds into development, clubs, and governance in the 2023 season. The picture is similar across the borders in Wales and Scotland, where the governing bodies reinvest the income into hockey on a developmental level. As with England Hockey, the majority of income of the Scottish Hockey Union was generated through government grants, with the international squads also bringing in a large portion of the income.Hockey at the Olympics
Public funding for Olympic hockey has remained relatively stable in recent funding cycles, totaling almost 12.7 million British pounds for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. While the men's Great British Olympic field hockey team crashed out on penalties to India in the quarter finals in 2024, they have won gold three times since the sport was first made an Olympic discipline back in 1908. However, their most recent success came back in 1988 when they beat West Germany in the final at the Seoul Summer Olympics. The most successful men's Olympic hockey nation of all time is India, whose team have won gold a record eight times. The GB women's team, however, have tasted success much more recently. Following two third place finishes at the 1992 and 2012 Olympics, the British women's hockey team claimed their first ever gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, beating the Netherlands 2-0 in a penalty shootout after the final ended 3-3. However, the Netherlands claimed revenge in the subsequent two Games, beating Team GB in the knockout stages of both the 2020 and 2024 tournament. Indeed, the Netherlands women's team are the most successful women's field hockey team at the Olympics, having claimed gold five times.With hockey participation figures in the UK displaying an upward trend, Team GB will be hoping that future Olympians will take up hockey and lead their nation to gold in years to come.
