More people joining gyms than GAA clubs
More people are joining gyms than GAA clubs, a survey has found.
Just six years ago Gaelic football and hurling were the dominant sports in the country, with the highest rates of membership of all sports clubs.
But the national sport is being replaced by a growing trend towards personal fitness, according to an Irish Sports Council/ESRI report.
Almost 10% of adults are members of personal exercise clubs compared with 8.4% in football or hurling.
But despite the popularity of fitness classes and exercise machines, almost a fifth of adults do not take part in regulark exercise.
With the country facing a growing obesity crisis, health experts claimed the figure revealed why the country faced an overweight problem.
Kevin Balanda, of the Institute of Public Health, said: “The fact that it (numbers not exercising) is relatively high is part of the reason why obesity and the rising obesity rates is an issue for the country,” he said.
“It seems that it is still a relatively low figure considering the obesity rates in the country.”
According to the ESRI/Irish Sports Council’s first annual sports monitor report, carried out in 2007, just 28% of adults are fairly active, 24% are highly active and 18% are classed as sedentary.
Class and gender also play a part in how active you are, with men, the better educated, the young and those on high wages more inclined to play sport.
Official figures show two in three Irish adults are overweight to an unhealthy level while one in four are classed as obese.
Despite the numbers, participation in sport and exercise in Ireland is in line with other developed countries and ahead of the worst performers, which tend to be the southern European nations.
Dr Pete Lunn, ESRI economist, said the study shone the spotlight on why some people were more active than others.
“This ongoing, large-scale project offers a new opportunity to monitor participation in Irish sport and to understand why some people are actively involved and others not,” he said.
Key findings include:
:: 24% of the population is highly active, 18% is sedentary.
:: 33% played sport for at least 20 minutes, the week before the survey was carried out.
:: Fewer people played sport towards the end of the year.
:: 68% played more than once a week.
:: People with high educational attainment, men, younger people and those on high incomes were much more likely to play sport and much less likely to be sedentary.
:: Soccer is the most popular team sport.
:: Combining volunteering, membership and attendance, Gaelic games remains the leading sports for social participation, but there are now more gym members than GAA members.
