2021 Participation Data

All participation statistics are from a nationwide study conducted during the 2021 calendar year by Sports Marketing Surveys USA (SMS). Under the guidance of the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) and seven other sports industry associations that make up the Physical Activity Council (PAC), the participation study was designed and launched by Digital Research (DRI). All other data is attributable to the SFIA/SMS research partnership.

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Sample Specification

During 2021, a total of 18,000 online interviews were carried out with a nationwide sample of individuals from U.S. proprietary online panels representative of the U.S. population for people ages six and older. Strict quotas associated with gender, age, income, region, and ethnicity were followed to ensure a balanced sample.

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The 2021 participation survey sample size of 18,000 completed interviews provides a high degree of statistical accuracy. All surveys are subject to some level of standard error -that is, the degree to which the results might differ from those obtained by a complete census of every person in the U.S. A sport with a participation rate of five percent has a confidence interval of plus or minus 0.32 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

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A weighting technique was used to balance the data to reflect the total U.S. population ages six and above. The following variables were used: gender, age, income, ethnicity, household size, region, and population density. The total population figure used was 304,745,039 people aged six and older.

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Activity reported is based on a rolling 12-month participation rate. All charts represent data from US populations ages 6 and over, unless otherwise specified.

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If you have specific questions regarding the methodology, please contact Sports Marketing Surveys USA at info@sportsmarketingsurveysusa.com.