Sport England Report

We’ve summarised their key findings and invite you to read their full report below.

• The annual social value of community sport and physical activity is £107.2 billion. Made up of £96b in wellbeing value and a further £10b in savings to the health and social care systems.
• Active adults who do more than 150 minutes of physical activity a week enjoy the greatest wellbeing value when compared to inactive adults. For older adults and those with a disability, this benefit can increase by a further 50%.
• Improvements to participants’ mental and physical health and wellbeing is strong across all ethnicities, genders, ages and abilities.
• Participants don’t have to take part in sport to feel the value. By volunteering and supporting others who are taking part in physical activity, you can feel the benefit, both physically and from a social value perspective, called the secondary value.
• The secondary value (society impact) results in fewer GP visits, less sports injuries and reduced risks of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, dementia and depression.

The report clearly lays out a positive case for wider investment in sport. Whether that be from an individual basis for us all to invest more time and energy into our own wellbeing. Or, for society to invest more resources to creating opportunities for everyone to play more sport and to get more active.