House » TIMag.com information » SFIA’s Topline Report Exhibits People’ Inactivity Price Declining

SILVER SPRING, MD (Feb. 16, 2022) – Because the world slowly started to reopen in 2021, People received again on the transfer, in line with the Sports activities and Health Business Affiliation’s (SFIA) annual Topline Participation Report. The report tracks participation charges of People aged six and older, throughout 120 completely different sport, health, and out of doors actions, together with a piece devoted to the affect of COVID-19 on participation charges.

For the second yr in a row, inactivity ranges declined. Lowering by 0.7% from 2020, inactivity is the bottom it has ever been. In comparison with 2016, exercise has elevated 7.8% – that’s 16.8 million extra individuals collaborating in sports activities and health in a five-year span. Decrease inactivity ranges in 2021 have been primarily pushed by the 18-24 and 25-34 age teams, with youth inactivity – age teams 6-12 and 13-17 – additionally reducing for the fifth yr in a row. Whereas these exercise numbers are encouraging, there may be nonetheless lots of work to do as over 72 million individuals are nonetheless inactive.

“2021 confirmed pandemic-friendly actions like tennis, golf, working, mountain climbing, yoga, skateboarding and browsing proceed to be common, whereas different classes that declined in 2020 are beginning to get better,” mentioned Tom Cove, President & CEO, SFIA.

Throughout the seven sports activities classes tracked by SFIA, water sports activities noticed the biggest year-over-year enhance in participation at 2.3%, adopted intently behind by out of doors sports activities with a 2.2% enhance. Crew sports activities noticed a year-over-year enhance of 1.8%, however participation nonetheless stays decrease than pre-pandemic ranges with roughly 2 million fewer individuals collaborating in staff sports activities in 2021 than 2019.

Pickleball continues its unimaginable rise, changing into the quickest rising sport over the past two years, with participation seeing a 39.3% progress. Yoga has grown 12.8% in that very same timeframe, making it one of many quickest rising actions throughout the pandemic.

We proceed to see a considerable participation affect by main occasions. With the summer time Olympic video games happening in 2021, participation in gymnastics, fast-pitch softball, swimming on a staff, and courtroom volleyball all elevated by over 8%. That is nearly double the quantity of progress the following highest staff sport noticed.

Cove says, “As we proceed to face challenges with an ongoing, unpredictable pandemic, we’re inspired to see of us returning to well being golf equipment and heading again out to the courts and fields, and persevering with the energetic existence they adopted throughout the pandemic.”

The 2022 Topline Participation Report is free to SFIA Members and is accessible to the general public for buy by clicking right here for $349.

The report is offered free-of-charge to members of the media. If you’re interested by a duplicate of this report, please contact Lisa Futterman at [email protected].