IRISH PEOPLE rank among Europe’s biggest participants in sporting activities and twice as many Irish people volunteer to support sporting activities as the EU average, new research shows.
Although Irish sport fiends rank alongside their Nordic counterparts for devotion to exercise and training, EU research reveals large disparities in attitudes to sport and physical exercise.
Italy emerged among three states with the lowest participation rates in sport, just 3 per cent. This prompted one wag to say that it has never prevented the country producing world-beating soccer teams.
“Ireland and the Nordic countries take sport most seriously, with 23 per cent of Irish citizens practising sport five times a week or more, while Sweden, Finland and Denmark score the highest ratings for exercising regularly or with some regularity,” the European Commission said.
Some 1,008 Irish people were interviewed last autumn for the Eurobarometer survey. Some 41 per cent of respondents said they seldom or never exercised or played sport, compared with the EU average of 60 per cent.
Some 11 per cent of Irish respondents said they strongly agreed that being physically active did not really interest them and they would rather do other things with their time.
Among those who don’t exercise, 38 per cent said they did not have the time. This included 46 per cent of male respondents aged 25-39 and 47 per cent of males aged 40-54. Some 50 per cent of female respondents aged 25-39 and 44 per cent of females aged 40-54 didn’t have time for sport.
With 14 per cent of respondents saying they engaged in voluntary work to support sporting activities, this was twice the EU average of 7 per cent. Leading participants in such work were managers, the self-employed and students.
Of those Irish respondents who do engage in physical activity, 43 per cent preferred outdoor sports and 25 per cent said they exercised when travelling between home, work, shops and schools.
Some 16 per cent of the sporting Irish use fitness centres. In Sweden, 31 per cent of respondents use fitness centres. Only 2 per cent of respondents in France and Hungary use them.
While the EU has limited powers to encourage sport, EU commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said the high level of non-participation in sport was worrying. “I will therefore be proposing an initiative later this year aimed at encouraging more Europeans to make sport and physical activity part of their daily lives,” she said.