The 2017 edition of the Irish Sports Monitor will be published in Dublin this morning.

The report is produced bi-annually by Sport Ireland and is an important document for analysis of how and where we as a nation play sport.

It is used for planning by Government, by sports and by local authorities to determine the best ways in which sport can be delivered best to different elements of society.

In 2015 the headline figure of 1.6 million people participating in sport represented a decline since 2013 from 47.2 percent to 45 percent.  It was still slightly ahead of the number from 2011 but this will be one of the key figures today.

Another will be the number of people living a sedentary life and who do not exercise at all which had fallen two years ago to its lowest ever level of 12.1%.

The gender gap between men and women was narrowing and it is to be hoped this will continue. ,

Gaelic Games, Rugby and Soccer  all saw sharp drops of more than 20 percent last time

The trend from team towards individual sport seemed then to be accelerating. Will it be the same this time around?

Everybody loves a list and here are the top ten Sporting pursuits over the course of the survey of 8,540 respondents interviewed between May 2015 and April 2016.

    1. (1 in 2013) Exercise 13.7% (12.2% in 2013)
    2. (3 in 2013) Running 8.2% (8.5% in 2013)
    3. (2) Swimming 8% (9.4% in 2013)
    4. (4) Cycling 5.5% (5.9%in 2013)
    5. (5) Soccer 4.8% (5.9% in 2013)
    6. (7) GAA 3.2% (4.3% in 2013)
    7. (6) Dance 3.0% (4.3% in 2013)
    8. (8) Golf 2.7% (3.3% in 2013)
    9. (9) Weights 2.3% (2.9%in 2013)
    10. Yoga 1.5% (1.2% in 2013)
    11. Pilates 1.4% (1.0% in 2013)
    12. (10) Rugby 1.1% (1.4% in 2013)

Join us on Friday morning for a full review of what the figures reveal and all the reaction to them.

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