Half the population is active in sport, study finds

JUST over half of the population is highly active or fairly active on the sports field, running track or in the gym, research by the Irish Sports Council shows.

The better educated and higher achievers were most likely to play sport regularly, the 2007 Irish Sport Monitor report shows, while 18% of the population admit to living sedentary lives.

In the first-ever national study of the role of sport in Irish people’s lives, the Economic, Social and Research Institute and the sports council research shows that personal exercise, such as attending a gym, a fitness class or using exercise machines are now the most popular type of exercise-taking in this country. The next most popular sport is swimming.