ABS: What Motivates Sport Participation?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released an online article explaining the influences for participation and non-participation in sport and physical recreation.
Collected in the 2005-06 Multi-Purpose Household Survey (MPHS), the article âWhat Motivates Australians to Participate in Sport?â identifies health and fitness (33% or 7.8 million persons) as the most common motivator followed by enjoyment (21% or 5.2 million persons), well-being (16% or 3.9 million persons) and social or family reasons (14% or 3.2 million persons).
The article also reports the most commonly reported reasons for non-participation as âinsufficient time due to work or studyâ, lack of interest and age.
MPHS collected data about the characteristics of persons aged 15 years and over who participated in sports and physical recreation activities. The MPHS was conducted each month during 2005-06 as a supplement to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Labour Force Survey.
Perspectives on Sport provides articles that discuss issues relating to sport and sporting programs that are commonplace within the Australian political and media landscape. These articles aim to provide further informed commentary to assist those debating these major issues.
Further information can be found in the ABS publication Participation in Sports and Physical Recreation, Australia, 2005-06 (cat. no. 4177.0) and the report 'Motivators and Constraints to Participation in Sports and Physical Recreation', prepared for the Standing Committee on Recreation and Sports (SCORS) Research Group (ABS 2007b).

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4156.0.55.001Feature%20Article1Oct%202008?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4156.0.55.001&issue=Oct%202008&num=&view=