Results by Sport
Results by sport
AusPlay provides data on the most popular participation sports and activities in Australia and who is participating in them.
On 31 October 2019 Sport Australia released the latest AusPlay results for sports and physical activities covering data collected in the 2018/19 financial year. New data tables are downloadable below.
On 30 April 2019 Sport Australia also released individual reports for 20 of the most popular participation activities in Australia (downloadable below).
- By sport data tables - July 2018 to June 2019 data (XLS
- 196 KB) - A story of State and Territory participation (PDF
- 1.7 MB) - AusPlay key terms and definitions (PDF
- 131 KB)
- By sport data tables - January 2018 to December 2018 data (XLS - 200 KB)
- Online Animated Story - A story of sports and physical activities
- Online animated story: A Story of Older Australians' Participation in Sport and Physical Activity
- AusPlay Focus: Older Australians’ Participation in Sport and Physical Activity (PDF - 1.5 MB)
- By sport data tables - July 2017 to June 2018 data (XLS - 263 KB)
- AusPlay Focus: Children’s Organised Out-of-school Participation (PDF - 1.0 MB)
- By sport data tables - January 2017 to December 2017 data (XLS - 295 KB)
- AusPlay Focus: Women and Girls Participation (PDF - 2.2 MB)
- By sport data tables - July 2016 to June 2017 data (XLS - 288 KB)
- By sport data tables - January 2016 to December 2016 data (XLS - 269 KB)
- By sport data tables - October 2015 to September 2016 data (XLS - 230 KB)
- Summary of key National findings – October 2015 to September 2016 data (PDF - 1.5 MB) - updated 21 December 2016
Future releases and time series comparisons
Sport Australia released the first results from AusPlay on 8 December 2016 for data collected from October 2015 to September 2016. This release filled a major data gap for the sport sector, which had been without national participation estimates since 2014 when the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) ceased all sport and recreation data collection.
From the second release onwards Sport Australia will follow a regular cycle of calendar and financial year reporting. Sport Australia has committed to report data every six months:
2. Results released on 26 April 2017 for data collected January 2016 – December 2016
3. Results released on 16 November 2017 for data collected July 2016 – June 2017
4. Results released on 30 April 2018 for data collected January 2017 – December 2017
5. Results released on 31 October 2018 for data collected July 2017 – June 2018
6. Results released on 30 April 2019 for data collected January 2018 – December 2018
7. Results released on 31 October 2019 for data collected July 2018 – June 2019
8. Next results to be released in April 2020
The first three releases have overlapping data and therefore time series comparisons cannot be made. Time series comparisons are possible from release 4 onwards by using two discrete data collection periods e.g. the 2016 and 2017 calendar years.
A tool to test whether the difference between estimates is statistically significant is available for download below. If you have any questions about the tool or would like assistance with it please send an email to ausplay@sportaus.gov.au.
Comparability of results with previous national surveys
AusPlay is different to previous national surveys in each of these aspects and any comparison of survey data should take these methodological differences into account. Although AusPlay includes some similar questions to the Exercise, Recreation and Sport Survey (ERASS) and Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) surveys (e.g. In the last 12 months did you participate in any physical activities for sport, for exercise or for recreation?), the methodology is different and it should therefore be treated as a new time series.
What next?
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)