High earners twice as likely to play sport

High earners are twice as likely to play sport than those on low wages, it emerged today.

New research also found that people with a degree are five times more likely to take part in a sport than someone who quit school at junior cert level.

And although considerably more men than women play sport, the numbers decline markedly with age.

The Irish Sports Council / ESRI survey examined the impact of social disadvantage on various forms of participation in sport.

It found better educated and higher income social groups enjoyed the health benefits associated with physical activity and noted that exclusion from sport extends from participation to attendance at events.

The outcomes were consistent across the top 15 participation sports in Ireland including GAA, soccer, swimming, golf, cycling and tennis.

“Increasing participation in sport and physical activity is our key strategic objective,” said Ossie Kilkenny, of the Irish Sports Council.

“This report has a strong message for sports policy in Ireland. If we want to make significant advances in sport and reap the social and health benefits we must invest in disadvantaged people and target those who left formal education early.”

More than 3,000 adults across the state took part in the survey, with four factors found to create an indirect link between social disadvantage and reduced playing of sport.

They were; having parents who didn’t play sport, having health problems, having no access to a car, and living in a small city or town.

However, the combination of all these factors accounts for only around one quarter of the impact of income and educational attainment.

“This report makes a significant contribution to our understanding of sport in Ireland, particularly as it makes explicit the link between disadvantage and participation in sport,” said John O’Donoghue, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism.

“The report endorses the strategy of investing in sport as it produces significant social benefit.”

Researchers found that health policies should not only be targeted at the socially disadvantaged, but need to be tailored to suit people at different stages in life: disadvantaged schoolchildren, disadvantaged young adults at risk of dropping out and disadvantaged older people who might take sport up again.

“We wanted to analyse if there were any links between disadvantage and participation in sport and it become clear that the link is strong and unarguable,” added the ESRI’s Pete Lunn.

“This leads to the conclusion that if sports policy is to contribute to an improvement in population health then investment must be targeted at disadvantage”.