QUALITY DECLARATION - SUMMARY
INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT
For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.
RELEVANCE
Data on Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation was collected as part of the 2009–10 Multipurpose Household Survey (MPHS). The Multipurpose Household Survey (MPHS) is collected as a supplement to the monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS) and is designed to collect annual statistics on a small number of self-contained topics. The scope of the LFS is restricted to people aged 15 years and over, and excludes members of the permanent defence forces; certain diplomatic personnel of overseas governments usually excluded from census and estimated resident populations; overseas residents in Australia; and members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependants). Refer to Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) for further information regarding the LFS. In addition, the 2009–10 MPHS excluded people living in very remote parts of Australia and people living in non-private dwellings such as hotels, university residences, students at boarding schools, patients in hospitals (e.g. retirement homes, homes for persons with disabilities), and inmates of prisons.
In the Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation component of the MPHS, respondents were asked questions regarding sports and related activities in which people participate. Details on the number of persons who participated in sporting events and physical recreational activities in the 12 months prior to interview are presented, together with the socio-demographic characteristics of participants, the most popular sport and physical recreational activities, frequency of participation, and the types of facilities used for participation in these sport and physical recreational activities.
TIMELINESS
The 2009–10 MPHS was collected from July 2009 to June 2010. The survey reference period was the 12 months prior to the survey interview. Data from the survey was released approximately six months after completion of enumeration.
ACCURACY
The full MPHS sample was 28,554 fully responding households. The Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation component of the MPHS was collected on approximately half this sample, resulting in 14,205 fully responding households. The exclusion of people living in very remote parts of Australia had only a minor impact on aggregate estimates, except for the Northern Territory where these people account for about 23% of the population.
Two types of error are possible in an estimate based on a sample survey: non-sampling error and sampling error. Non-sampling error arises from inaccuracies in collecting, recording and processing the data. Every effort is made to minimise reporting error by the careful design of questionnaires, intensive training and supervision of interviewers, and efficient data processing procedures. Non-sampling error also arises because information cannot be obtained from all persons selected in the survey.
Sampling error occurs because a sample, rather than the entire population, is surveyed. One measure of the likely difference resulting from not including all dwellings in the survey is given by the standard error. There are about two chances in three a sample estimate will differ by less than one standard error from the figure that would have been obtained if all dwellings had been included in the survey, and about 19 chances in 20 the difference will be less than two standard errors. Measures of the relative standard error for this survey are included with this release.
COHERENCE
The ABS collected data on Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation in the 2005-06 MPHS. The 2009-10 survey is essentially the same as the earlier survey, the only differences being the addition of questions on facilities used for participation in sport and physical recreation, and the removal of questions on motivators and constraints to participation. Data on Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation was also collected as part of the 2002 General Social Survey (GSS). As the 2002 GSS used a different collection methodology there are concerns about its comparability with MPHS data. Consequently, GSS data have not been included for comparison with any 2009-10 MPHS output.
INTERPRETABILITY
The Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation publication contains tables and a summary of findings to aid interpretation of the survey's results. Detailed explanatory notes, a technical note and a glossary are also included to provide information on the terminology, classifications and other technical aspects associated with the statistics.
ACCESSIBILITY
In addition to the Adobe PDF publication, the tables and associated relative standard errors are available in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format on the website. Selected tables are also available at the state level.
Additional data may be available on request. For a list of data items see the 'Downloads' tab of the publication. Note that detailed data can be subject to high relative standard errors.
For further information about these or related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Centre on 1300 135 070.
Quality Declaration 
Print Page
Print All