New research from the Irish Sports Council shows an overall increase in the number of people participating in sport but that there has been a decline in the numbers of young people taking part.
The authors of the survey suggest that this data, for the first six months of 2013 as opposed to 2011, needs to be studied further in the context of a full years worth of data before arriving at any hard and fact conclusions.
The highlight of the survey is a marked increase in participation among women with the 35-44 age group showing the strongest increase from 34% two years ago to 46% over the past six months.
That has helped an overall lift in participation from 44.5% in 2011 to 47% in 2013 and a corresponding additional fall in the number of those who undertake no physical activity to a new low of 12.1% from 13.2%.
Figures among the youngest group of 16-19 highlight the inequality of engagement between young men and women with 83% of boys having participated in sporting or physical activity in the previous seven days versus only 66% of girls.
There are multiple reasons for this disparity, some structural, some social and some in terms of public profile of role models and bridging the gap is the primary motivation of the Sport for Daughters initiative which Sport for Business will launch in 2014.
There are surprising declines in volunteering within sport and in attendance at sporting events though it may be that these figures, which are most strongly influenced by attendance at GAA fixtures will rebalance once the full year of data is collated and published in 2014.
A copy of the Irish Sports Monitor can be viewed here.
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