PARTICIPATION IN SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES
Nearly two-thirds of Australians aged 18 years and over (62.4% or 9.1 million people) participated in sport and physical activities at least once during the 12 months prior to interview in 2002. Of these, 5.6 million people participated, on average, at least weekly. This represents 38.6% of the adult population.
Participation rates for the states and territories were: NSW 59.5%, Vic 63.0%, Qld 61.2%, SA 57.7%, WA 74.9%, Tas 60.3%, NT 70.6% and ACT 76.1%.
More males (4.7 million or 65.0%) than females (4.4 million or 59.9%) participated in sport and physical activities at least once in the 12 months prior to interview in 2002. However, a similar number and proportion of males (2.8 million or 38.6%) and females (2.8 million or 38.7%) reported participating in these activities at least weekly.
Walking for exercise was the most popular physical activity, reported by over 3.6 million or over one quarter (25.3%) of the population aged 18 years and over. Aerobics/fitness and swimming, both with 1.6 million participants (10.9%), were the next most popular choices of sport and physical activities. Golf was also a popular activity with 1.1 million adults (7.5%) participating in this activity.
These and other main features of Participation in Sport and Physical Activities, Australia, 2002 are available free of charge on this web site.