Walking, swimming and fitness centre training are the most popular activities Australians do regularly

Newly released information from Roy Morgan Research has revealed that walking for exercise is the most popular sport or activity which Australians regularly participate in.

The research reveals that over half of adult Australians aged 14 and over (53.9%), regularly go for a vigorous stroll. This is a significant increase of 5.4 percentage points (ppts), or around 1.6 million participants, since 2019.

Going to the gym/weight training is Australia’s second most popular sporting activity with four million Australians regularly participating. Like walking, gym/weight training was only asked of adults.

Jogging/running is the third most popular activity for Australians aged 14 and over with almost 2.3 million regularly participating ahead of swimming on 1.7 million, yoga on 1.3 million, hiking/bushwalking on almost 1.2 million and cycling on 1.15 million.

The research reveals that football (referred to as ‘soccer’ by Roy Morgan Research) is Australia’s most widely played team sport with 570,000 Australians aged 14+ playing regularly and no doubt looking forward to the FIFA Women’s World Cup - starting this week.

A glance at the table shows there are several sports and activities with high regular participation for adults that don’t appear for children. Marked (A) are sports and activities where Roy Morgan asked only for those aged 14 and over as part of the Single Source survey including walking for exercise, gym/weight training, jogging, yoga, fishing, Pilates, golf and running/marathons.

These are the top-line findings from the latest National Sports Participation report from Roy Morgan.

Top 20 Sports and Activities by regular participation rate (Australians aged 14+)

Sources: Roy Morgan Single Source, April 2022 - March 2023, sample n = 65,863 Australians aged 14+; *Sports marked with an (A) were only asked of Australians aged 14 and over.

Young Australians most likely to be involved in swimming and football
Young Australians are far more involved in sports with over 40% of children aged six to 13 swimming (41.6% - 1.1 million) and around a third playing football (33.4% - 907,000).

These leading sports are followed in popularity by cycling (25.7% - 698,000), basketball (24.5% - 665,000) and athletics/track & field (21.6% - 585,000). Just under a fifth go dancing (18.1% - 490,000), play cricket (16.1% - 438,000), do gymnastics (16.1% - 437,000) or play tennis (15.5% - 420,000).

The research shows there is a clear difference between the sporting activities of younger and older Australians with younger Australians far more likely to participate regularly in a range of sporting activities than their older counterparts.

Australian children are more than five times as likely to swim regularly and over four times as likely to cycle. The starkest differences are for team sports with children over 10 times more likely to play football, basketball, cricket or Australian rules regularly than adults.

Sporting activities on which Roy Morgan only asked children aged six to 13 years old about, but not older Australians, are the 14th most popular skateboarding (8.0%) and 16th most popular t-ball (7%).

Combining data for the year to March 2023 from the Single Source survey of Australians aged 14+ and the most recent Young Australians survey of children aged six to 13 for the year to December 2022 shows the next most popular activity after walking for exercise and gym/weigh training is swimming with 11.7% of Australians six years or older swimming regularly.

Over 1.1 million Australians aged six to 13 and 1.7 million adults now swim.

Top 20 Sports and Activities by regular participation rate (Australians aged 6-13)

Sources: Roy Morgan Young Australians Survey, January 2022 - December 2022, sample n = 2,713 Australians aged 6-13. *Sports marked with (K) were only asked of children aged six to 13.

Roy Morgan Research Chief Executive, Michele Levine says walking for exercise has grown rapidly in popularity during the last few years as many Australians adopted the healthy habit during the pandemic when extensive restrictions closed down many other sporting activities.

She explained “over half of Australian adults (53.9%) comprising almost 11.6 million people, regularly go walking for exercise - a significant increase from four years ago when fewer than half of Australian adults (48.5%) regularly did the activity for exercise.

“The popularity of walking for exercise increased rapidly after the onset of the pandemic in early 2020 and regular participation has increased by around 1.6 million adults since then. The activity was one of the few that was allowed throughout the pandemic years of 2020-22 and these figures show the activity is a popular one for a majority of Australians.

“Going to the gym/weight training has also picked up in the last year - especially as pandemic restrictions eased and many Australians felt the need to return to vigorous exercise to lose extra weight put on during the pandemic. Now 4 million Australians regularly go to the gym/weight train, up over 730,000 compared to 2019 - an increase of over 20%.

“The two closely related healthy exercise routines - Pilates and yoga have also enjoyed significant growth in popularity during the pandemic years as online classes allowed people to continue their fitness journeys despite being stuck at home. Regular participation in Pilates increased by over 230,000 to 894,000 and participation in yoga was up over 180,000 to over 1.3 million.

“For younger Australians aged between six to 13 years old swimming (41.6%) is clearly the most popular sporting activity undertaken. The world game of soccer (33.4%) is ranked far ahead of rivals Australian football (13.8%), rugby league (7.1%) and rugby union (3.8%).

“Team sports are more prominent for younger Australians. Nine out of the top 20 sports for Australian children are team sports compared to only five for Australians aged 14+. The most popular team sports for older Australians are soccer (2.7% participating regularly), basketball (2.2%), cricket (1.6%), netball (1.5%) and Australian Football (1.3%).

“There is also a huge gap between the levels of participation between the different age groups. Virtually all sports and activities measured on both surveys show higher rates of participation for kids aged six to 13 years old than those aged 14 and over.

“Roy Morgan’s extensive demographic, attitudinal and behavioural data allows sporting organisations to gain deeper insight into the trends for participation in their respective sports and also develop an understanding of the other interests and activities that drive participants.”

For more information about Roy Morgan’s Single Source and Young Australians surveys, and our latest sports and activities participation data, email: askroymorgan@roymorgan.com