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EMPLOYMENT AND VOLUNTARY WORK




SURVEY OF INVOLVEMENT IN ORGANISED SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

The Survey of Involvement in Organised Sport and Physical Activity enables estimates to be made of the number of persons who were involved in either a playing role, or in a non-playing role such as coach, umpire or administrator.

The 2001 survey found that there were 1.4 million persons (9.5% of all persons aged 15 years and over) involved in at least one non-playing role in organised sport and physical activity during the 12 months ended April 2001. A third (33.8%) of these were involved in more than one non-playing role. In total, there were 2.1 million non-playing involvements among the 1.4 million persons.

There were 595,000 persons involved as a Committee member or administrator; 558,400 as a Coach, instructor or teacher; and 340,000 as a Referee or umpire. Males had higher participation rates than females in the roles of Coach, instructor or teacher (4.7% of males and 2.8% of females); Referee or umpire (2.8% of males and 1.8% of females); and Committee member or administrator (4.7% of males and 3.3% of females).

Of the 1.4 million persons with some non-playing involvement, 53.6% (760,600) were associated with school or junior sport and 33.6% (477,500) had completed a course or qualification relevant to their role.

7.8 TYPE OF INVOLVEMENT IN ORGANISED SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY(a) - 2001
		MALES		FEMALES		PERSONS
		Total involvements	Participation rate	Total involvements	Participation rate	Total involvements	Participation rate
		'000	%	'000	%	'000	%
Playing		2 022.5	27.3	1 494.0	19.7	3 516.4	23.5
Non-playing roles
	Coach, instructor, teacher	346.0	4.7	212.4	2.8	558.4	3.7
	Referee or umpire	205.2	2.8	134.8	1.8	340.0	2.3
	Committee member or administrator	347.7	4.7	247.3	3.3	595.0	4.0
	Scorer or timekeeper	224.3	3.0	229.4	3.0	453.7	3.0
	Medical support	42.1	0.6	48.0	0.6	90.1	0.6
	Other involvement	42.8	0.6	44.3	0.6	87.1	0.6
	Total non-playing involvements	1 208.2	. .	916.1	. .	2 124.3	. .
Total involvements(b)		3 230.7	. .	2 410.1	. .	5 640.8	. .
. . not applicable
(a) Relates to involvement by persons aged 15 years and over in organised sport and physical activity during a 12-month period prior to April 2001.
(b) Total involvements is greater than the number of persons involved because one individual can be active in more than one area (e.g. coaching, umpiring and scoring).
Source: Involvement in Organised Sport and Physical Activity, Australia, April 2001 (cat no. 6285.0).

Of the 2.1 million non-playing involvements, 11.0% (233,500) received some payment for their involvement. By comparison, 2.5% of the 3.5 million players (88,100) received some payment for their playing role. Those who were paid for their involvement were likely to spend more time in the role. For non-playing roles, 34.9% of paid involvements were for 40-52 weeks of the year. However, the vast majority of these paid involvements were part time, with over 90% being for less than 20 hours a week during the weeks of involvement.

Of the 1.9 million unpaid (volunteer) involvements in non-playing roles, 42.9% (811,200 involvements) were for 1-13 weeks, 27.7% (523,100) were for 14-26 weeks, 7.9% (149,900) were for 27-39 weeks and 21.5% (406,300) were for 40-52 weeks of the year. For 64.2% (1.2 million) of unpaid non-playing involvements, the time spent was less than three hours per week during the weeks of involvement. A further 30.5% (576,700) of these involvements were for 3-9 hours per week, and 5.3% (99,900) were for more than 10 hours per week.

There was some variation in the amount of time involved across the non-playing roles. For example, 37.2% of Committee members or administrators were involved for 40-52 weeks of the year, whereas only 14.2% of Referees or umpires and 12.3% of Scorers or timekeepers were involved for this length of time.

7.9 TYPE OF INVOLVEMENT, By number of weeks and number of hours per week - 2001
		UNPAID INVOLVEMENTS			PAID INVOLVEMENTS
		Playing	Non-playing roles	Total unpaid involvements	Playing	Non-playing roles	Total paid involvements
		'000	'000	'000	'000	'000	'000
Number of weeks
	1-13 weeks	821.4	811.2	1 632.7	19.8	62.4	82.0
	14-26 weeks	857.6	523.1	1 380.8	24.0	54.3	78.1
	27-39 weeks	401.5	149.9	551.6	*15.4	35.8	51.0
	40-52 weeks	1 347.7	406.3	1 754.1	29.1	81.4	110.5
Number of hours per week
	Less than 3 hours	1 369.1	1 214.3	2 583.3	16.6	102.1	118.8
	3-9 hours	1 823.7	576.7	2 400.4	42.0	87.8	129.8
	10-19 hours	205.4	88.2	293.6	21.6	21.3	42.8
	20 hours or more	30.1	11.7	41.8	8.0	22.3	30.3
Total involvements		3 428.3	1 890.9	5 319.2	88.1	233.5	321.6
* estimate has a relative standard error of 25% to 50% and should be used with caution
Source: ABS data available on request, Involvement in Organised Sport and Physical Activity, April 2001.

A comparison of participation rates for 1993, 1997 and 2001 can be made for the three non-playing roles of Coach, instructor or teacher; Referee or umpire; and Scorer or timekeeper. Between 1993 and 1997, there was no significant change in participation rates for the role of Referee or umpire, while there were increases for the roles of Coach, instructor or teacher ( from 3.9% to 4.4%) and Committee member or administrator ( from 4.6% to 5.1%). There was a significant decrease in participation rates for each of these roles from 1997 to 2001 (from 4.4% to 3.7% for the Coach, instructor or teacher role; from 3.2% to 2.3% for Referees or umpires; and from 5.1% to 4.0% for Committee members or administrators).

7.10 INVOLVEMENT IN NON-PLAYING ROLES - 1993, 1997 and 2001