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July 2014 - Sport, Leisure and Tourism

Sport England’s (SE) Active People Survey (APS) has highlighted a statistically significant increase in the number of people who have taken up cycling at least once a week.

SE’s latest survey, which covers April 2013 to April 2014, has shown there are now 132,600 additional adults, in England, cycling for 30 minutes or more at least once a week than there was back in October 2013 (2,003,000).

The number of 16+year olds cycling for 30 minutes or more once a month also increased from 3,524,400 (October 2013) to 3,747,100 (April 2014).

Cycling’s overall increase in participation (2,135,600 as of April 2014) moves it up to the third most popular sport in England behind Swimming (2,907,200) and athletics (2,154,700), but ahead of football (1,926,400) and golf (710,400).

While cycling has seen a surge in popularity, swimming, the most popular sport in 2013/14, incurred a statistically significant decrease in participation losing 27,000 partakers between October 2013 (2,934,200) and April 2014 (2,907,200). However, regardless of its drop in numbers, it still remains top of the participation podium.

British Cycling, the national governing body for cycling, has experienced notable increases too, gaining 40,000 additional members since the 2012 London Olympics. The number of competitive events held has increased by 4%, with a 28% upsurge in the amount of sporting-style challenge events.

16+ years participation figures (once a week) for other funded sports:

Sport	No. of people participating	Increase/descrese from October 2013
Badminton	547,000	Increase
Tennis	434,600	Increase
Equestrian	344,400	Increase
Bowls	237,800	Decrease
Squash & racketball	210,700	Decrease
Rugby Union	190,400	Inrease
Cricket	167,500	Increase
Basketball	166,500	Increase
Netball	156,000	Increase
Boxing	152,100	Decrease

 

 

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