Netball has retained its position as the leading team sport for women and girls, according to the latest AusPlay data released by Sport Australia today.
The report shows strong participation in netball with more than 1 million people actively participating in the sport and naming netball as the sport they most strongly identify with.
The nationwide AusPlay survey, which has been running since October 2015, is Australia’s largest and most comprehensive sport and physical activity survey conducted by Sport Australia.
Netball Australia CEO Marne Fechner said it’s been an exciting time for women’s sport in recent years and that she is delighted that netball has maintained its position as number one.
“To be recognised as the top team sport for Australian women and girls again in 2018, demonstrates the continuing, widespread connection that our country has to netball,” she said.
“The data reflects netball’s strong national footprint, with high levels of participation in metropolitan, regional and very remote regions of Australia.”
Fechner also referenced the wide variety of ways people can participate in netball in Australia.
“The sport continues to create opportunities for people of all ages to get involved in netball, from the Suncorp NetSetGO for children aged 5 to 10 years, through to ‘walking netball’ for older or less mobile demographics,” she said.
“We’re always looking to create meaningful opportunities for more Australians to play netball and it’s great to see the impact of this commitment reflected in the 2018 AusPlay data.”
The survey showed that the top three motivations for people to participate in netball were social reasons (52%), fun and enjoyment (50%) and physical health or fitness (45%) and the majority of participants who play do so with their local netball club (just under 70%).
The AusPlay data also demonstrated that netball retains players for longer than other sports, with strong female participation into adulthood (18-24 years of age), in fact netball is the activity with the second largest adult female participation rates (89%), behind Pilates (90%).
For more information on the AusPlay survey: https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/research/smi/ausplay
