Survey : Sporting legacy: more people than ever playing sport every week ( UK )

Record numbers of women and men in England are playing sport every week.

Figures released today by Sport England show that 15.5 million people aged 16 and over are playing sport every week. That’s 750,000 more than a year ago and 1.57 million more than when London won the Olympic and Paralympic bid.

Sport England today (December 6 2012) published the latest Active People Survey results covering the year to October 2012 which reveal that by every measure the number of people playing sport has gone up.

The strongest growth has been among women, with half a million women on their bikes, playing netball, running, swimming and going to the gym in the past year helping to cut the gender gap in sport.

The figures also reveal the inspirational impact of the Games – the number of people taking part rising has risen sharply in the period since the London 2012 Games got underway, with strong increases in Olympic sports such as cycling, sailing and volleyball.

More disabled people are playing sport at least once a week, but participation rates still lag far behind those for non-disabled people. Sport England this week announced a £10.2 million National Lotteryinvestment to tackle this challenge.

Two thirds of the sports measured by the Active People Survey have shown a positive trend over the past year with athletics, judo, tennis and swimming among those growing in popularity. Cricket was among the grassroots sports that suffered during the wettest summer for a century.

Young people aged between 16 and 25 are the most active in our society, but increasing participation among this age group remains tough and this is the priority for Sport England’s five-yearstrategy announced in January this year.

>> Get full details of the survey and itsresults