Ben Dunne will be happy. Personal exercise has retained its position as the most popular form of participation sport in Ireland and it has extended its lead.
The Irish Sports Monitor surveyed 9,500 individuals on their sporting participation and habits, taking into account different seasons.
This is the list of the top ten most popular sporting activities.
- Exercise 12.2%
- Swimming 9.4%
- Running 8.5%
- Cycling 5.9%
- Soccer 5.9%
- Dancing 4.3%
- GAA 4.0%
- Golf 3.3%
- Weights 2.9%
- Rugby 1.4%
Exercise has increase from 10.9% when the survey was last completed in 2011 and from 7.3% in the first wave of similar research carried out in 2007.
Swimming has dipped back over the last two years from 9.7% to 9.4% but remains well ahead of the 6.7% it scored in 2007.
Running has been one of the big winners of the latest round climbing from 6.1% two years ago to 8.5% and closing fast on swimming in 2013. The presence of Glohealth as a major new sponsor in the sport of athletics and a focus on the Fit4Life programme will likely see a significant further kick here in 2014 and beyond.
Cycling is another to have shown big growth over the six years of research, from 2.5% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2013 and this does not include those who are cycling to work as opposed to for sport and fitness. The focus on the Giro d’Italia this year and the launch of the Women on Wheels initiative will also add to the strength of this area.
Team sports have shown more stable growth and the breakdown between gaelic football and hurling or camogie shows that the rise in popularity of the latter in terms of coverage and perception has not been matched in playing numbers with football participation growing slightly over the last two years and hurling falling back.
Rugby remains low in terms of participation, especially given the success of the provinces and the national team over the period. There was growth from 1.1% to 1.4% in 2013 but that is still below the 1.5% of the population that played in 2008.
Figures for tag rugby and five a side soccer are included in their figures which is perfectly valid and it shows that gaelic games may need to look at the potential of adapted games to cater for older players and in a more social context.
The most worrying decline among the major sports is in golf where participation numbers have fallen from 5.2% in 2007 to 3.3% last year. The impact of the recession was only fully felt in the last two years where the steepest decline, from 4.6%, has taken place.
Discover more about the shrinking gender gap in sport in Ireland.
