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city 14
Attendance at leisure and recreation classes 15
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4. Participation in leisure activities 13Acknowledgements
We would like to thank everybody who contributed to the Survey and the
production of this report. We were supported by our specialist colleagues in ONS
who were responsible for sampling, fieldwork, coding and editing.
Our thanks also go to colleagues who supported us with administrative duties
and during publication. Particular thanks are due to the interviewers who worked
on the 2002 survey, and to all those members of the public who gave their time
and co-operation.1
Chapter 1 Introduction
Introduction
This report presents findings from the sport and leisure
module of the 2002/2003 General Household Survey (GHS).
It asked people aged 16 and over about their participation
in a wide range of sport and leisure activities. It also
included, for the first time in 2002, questions about
volunteering in sports and the arts. The module was
commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport (DCMS), Sport England, UK Sport and Arts Council
England to provide a measure of the effectiveness of
campaigns encouraging people to take more exercise, and
to help monitor the growth or decline of particular sports
and leisure activities.
Taking part in the arts, sport and recreation are perceived to
have beneficial social, economic and health impacts. In
December 2002, the Prime Minister’s strategy Unit and
DCMS jointly published a report called Game Plan1, which
included a target for increasing the proportion of the
population in England that were reasonably active2 from
around 30% in 1998 to 70% in 2020.
In April 2004, Sport England published the Framework for
Sport in England3, which set out the agenda to work
towards achieving the main aims of Game Plan. It has a
target of 1% growth per year in regular sports participation
for people aged 16 or over (with a view to achieving at least
50% participation in 2020). It also noted that sport relies
heavily on volunteers.
As stated in its Corporate Plan 2003-2006, Arts Council
England4 aims to increase the number of people who
engage in the arts. It is trying to ensure that there is a
growth in participation amongst Black and minority ethnic
groups, disabled people and socially excluded groups.
A consistent set of questions about participation in sport
and leisure activities has been asked on the General
Household Survey at three-year intervals since 19875.
Questions on sport and leisure activities had previously been
included on the GHS at regular intervals since 1973. In 1987
a new set of questions was introduced in order to improve
the accuracy of the information collected. Respondents
were prompted with a list of sports or activities on a
showcard and asked about participation both in the
previous four weeks and in the 12 months before interview.
Prior to this the survey had used an ‘open-ended’ question
asking respondents to recall all their leisure activities in the
four weeks before interview. The change to the
questionnaire in 1987 caused a discontinuity in the
measurement of trends.
In addition to the sport and leisure module, the GHS
includes other relevant information that has been drawn on
in this report, such as National Statistics Socio-economic
Classification (NS-SEC), economic activity