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The pursuit of sport in Barcelona beats the European average by 17.4 points in 2022

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15/12/2022 - 06:30 h

66.7% of Barcelona’s residents do sport. This is confirmed from the results of the latest Sports Habits Survey published by the Barcelona Institute of Sports which, five years after its first edition, presents a young, fit and health-conscious sports profile, with a higher female presence and 17.4 points above the European average (49% according to the latest Eurobaremeter). A great level of awareness can be seen from this survey regarding the importance of sport, as well as an increase in how frequently people do it and a general tendency towards a large number of sports.

David Escudé, the Councillor for Sports, has pointed out that Barcelona is a city with a long sports tradition and where efforts have always been made to boost the pursuit of sport and physical activities among city residents, so it is hardly surprising that Barcelona is regarded as one of the best cities in the world for doing sport: “We believe it is very important, besides organising big sports events, to promote sport and encourage all our citizens to do it through incentives. The fact that 2/3 of Barcelona’s population state that they regularly do sport is very good news, especially in the wake of a pandemic like the one we went through. We will keep on working in this line as we firmly believe that an active and fit population is a healthy one ”.

The same was taken on the basis of 1,500 interviews conducted on men and women over the age of 17, from the city’s 10 districts. The data collected has enabled an analysis to be made of the state of Barcelona’s sports fabric and several determining factors of great general interest to be discovered such as: athlete profiles, use of sports facilities and the physical activities most often performed.

WHAT ARE BARCELONA’S ATHLETES LIKE?

Barcelona is a sports city, which can be seen not just from the 66.7% of its residents doing physical activities but also from the 96.2% who, irrespective of their age, nationality, area or whether or not they have the necessary time for it, describe sport as one of the Catalan capital’s essential values. Such awareness from society is having its effect on the pursuit of sport among women, who have been constantly and steadily consolidating it as a regular habit (64.2%). This is similar to the proportion of men doing some type of physical activity (69%), where we can observe a narrowing of the gap between the two sexes since the 2017 study.

The profile of athletes is below the age of 35: 73.7% of the individuals aged between 17 and 24 do sport and physical activity as do 73% of those aged between 25 and 34. In addition, 68.1% of those doing sport prefer to do it on their own, a situation that has to do with type of sport pursued than factors such as sex or age.

What age does determine are the preferred time slots for training: in the morning, from 9 am to 12 noon, which is preferred by 41.8% of athletes, especially the elderly; and in the afternoon, between 4 pm and 8 pm, the time slot chosen by 43.2% of people doing sport and physical activity, specifically those between the ages of 24 and 34.

On the other hand, when it comes to reasons for doing sport, health comes top. 66.7% of the survey’s respondents state that they do sport and physical activity to maintain or improve their health, while 40.8% say they do it as exercise and to keep themselves in shape.

As for the type of sports and physical activities most often chosen, the star options continue to be walking as physical exercise (31.2%), swimming (16.3%), body-building (15.5%), running (13.6%) and cycling (8.8%). Women choose walking as their number-one physical exercise, followed by swimming, yoga and body-building. It can be observed here that the number of women regularly walking has risen since 2017, whereas the number of women swimming has dropped. As for men, walking as a physical exercise is the number-one activity, followed by body-building, outdoor running along streets and swimming.

Another distinctive trait defining the nature of Barcelona’s athletic population is how often people do sport. Individuals doing sport and physical activity have added more training days to their routine and, even though the preference continues to be for work days, 38.6% of the people who say they regularly do sport have also taken up another type of sports activity during weekends.

WHERE DO PEOPLE DO SPORT?

When it comes to choosing a space for doing sport, most people tend to go for a sports facility and, out of these, 52.5% opted for Municipal Sports Facilities, more specifically for centres and facilities close to where they live.

On the other hand, 20.7% of the total choose to do sport at home. The figures here have grown significantly since 2017, probably because of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased range of virtual content on physical activities.

As for doing sport outdoors, streets (40%) and parks (22,5%) continue to be places most used by Barcelona’s residents. The ongoing trend in nature sites such as the Pavelló Blau, where the number of sea and beach athletes has risen since 2017, is for people to do their physical activity close to where they live. It is predominantly residents living in the nearby districts who do sport along the Collserola mountain range: By contrast, when it comes to Les Corts, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Gràcia, Horta Guinardó and Nou Barris, the sports predominantly pursued in the coastal area are by people from Sant Martí and Ciutat Vella, although residents from the rest of the city’s 10 districts can also be found.

SPORTS HABITS AMONG THE SCHOOL-AGE POPULATION

77.4% of the school-age population regularly do some type of sport or physical activity outside school hours. By sex, the figures are 73.4% of girls and 77.3% of boys. Here the survey also shows the age at which sport is mainly taken up, where most students begin between the ages of 6 and 10: 49.2% of students have begun some type of sports activity between the first and third years of primary education and 54% between the fourth and sixth years.

As for organised sport, 81.3% of the respondents state that they do sport and physical activity promoted by external players, whereas 71.1% do so without organising. Organised sport is preferably done during the week and non-organised sport during weekend.

As for activities requiring membership of a club or organisation, it can be seen that the commonly pursued sport is football (30.6%), followed by swimming (14.4%), basketball (13.7%), martial arts (12%) and dance (10.6%). The favourite activities among girls are dancing, swimming and basketball and among boys are football, basketball and martial arts.

When it comes to non-organised sports, the most popular for young people are walking as a physical exercise (20.6%), cycling (18.2%), running (12.9%), roller-skating (10.5%) and football (8.9%). Similarly, if we break this done by sex: men opt for cycling, walking and running and women mostly for walking, cycling and roller-skating.

As for frequency, more than 55% of the city’s school children meet the recommendations from the World Health Organisation to do physical activity and sport at least 3 times a week: 10.2% do sport once and 34.6% twice or three times a week while 32.8% train four to five days a week and 22.4% even more than that.