Global views on sports: 58% globally would like to practice more
A new global Ipsos study conducted with the World Economic Forum explores attitudes to sports and finds that globally most (58%) would like to practice more but say they lack of time to do so (37%).
A new Global Advisor study reveals that people from the Netherlands are the most physically active of 29 nations. On average they report spending 12.8 hours a week (almost two hours per day) doing physical exercise or team sports, double the average of 6.1 across 29 markets. People from Germany and Romania are the next most active, carrying out 11.1 and 11 hours of exercise per week respectively.
At the other end of the scale, Brazilians are the least physically active, spending three hours per week doing physical exercise on average (26 minutes per day). Four other countries report doing less than four hours of physical exercise on average per week – France (3.7), Chile (3.7), Italy (3.6) and Japan (3.3).
One third of Japanese citizens report doing no exercise at all in an average week (34%), more than double the average across 29 countries (14%). Three in ten Brazilians (31%) and a quarter of Poles and Italians (both 26%) also report doing no exercise at all. Among those from the Netherlands just four per cent say they do no exercise at all in a week.
Most commonly practiced sports
The five most frequently practiced team sports and activities across the 29 markets in a normal week are fitness (20%), running (19%), cycling (13%), soccer (10%) and swimming (9%). However, the largest proportion say they do no team sport (38%).
- Americans and Britons are the most likely to say they do no team sports, with six in ten of their populations saying this is the case (61% and 59% respectively). Other Anglophone countries – Canada (56%) and Australia (55%) – are next most likely to agree, along with Japan (55%).
- Swedes are the least likely to report playing now team sports in a normal week, with just 15% saying this is the case.
Barriers to further participation
Almost six in ten citizens across the 29 markets say they would like to play more sports than they currently do (58%). The top three nations where people are most likely to say they would like to play more sport than they currently do are all in Latin America – Peru (81%), Chile (79%) and Colombia (78%). Americans are least likely to say they would like to play more sports than they currently do (35%), while more than six in ten say they are happy with the amount of sport they currently play (62%).
The biggest obstacle to further participation across all counties is a lack of time: 37% say this is a barrier. The next biggest barriers are a lack of money (cited by 18%) and the weather being too hot or too cold (17%). Just over one in five say there are no barriers to their participation in sport (22%).
- Lack of time is a particular issue in Saudi Arabia (51%), Peru (48%) and Russia (47%)
- People in Turkey and Argentina are especially likely to cite a lack of money (33% and 30% respectively), followed by South Africans and Russians (25%)
- Citizens of Saudi Arabia and South Africa are most likely to say weather that is too hot (or cold) is a barrier to participating in more sport (both 38%). Just seven per cent of Britons say the same.
- Four in ten Japanese people say there are no barriers to their participation in sport and they simply do not want to participate (40%), almost double the global country average score of 22%. Those from the United States are second-most likely to say this (37%), followed by a third of Britons (33%) and Canadians (32%).
