INTERPRETING THE DATA IN THIS REPORT
Differences between the data items discussed in this publication are statistically significant, unless otherwise noted. For further information about statistical significance, please refer to the 'Technical Note: Data Quality' in this publication.
The common denominator in the tables is 'whether participated in sport or physical recreation in the previous 12 months'. There are two ways to analyse and interpret the data - by looking at the rates of participation in sport according to the social indicators of the participants and by looking at the differences in the indicators according to whether people participated or did not participate in sport or physical recreation (i.e. by changing the denominator). For example, in Table 5.1 the data indicates that those who volunteered in the community had a higher rate of participation in sport (87% of the 6.1 million volunteers in Australia) compared with those who did not volunteer (67%). The same data also shows that a greater proportion of participants in sport volunteered (42% of the 12.5 million people who participated in sport) compared with non-participants (19%).
The analysis undertaken for this report takes these alternative ways of interpreting the data into account while the commentary presents the key findings in the way that is considered most appropriate. Information is presented in five sections that focus on:
- selected characteristics of sport participants
- self-assessed health status and work-life balance
- the engagement of sport participants in the community through means such as volunteering, and attending sport, cultural and community events
- feelings of trust and safety experienced by sport participants in their local communities
- the social networks of sport participants, such as the frequency of contact with their family and friends.
Within this report,
sport participants refer to those people that physically undertook sport or physical recreation as well as those involved in non-playing roles such as coaches, officials, umpires and administrators in the 12 months prior to interview.
Non-participants refer to those who did not partake in any such activity in this time period. For ease of interpretation, the terms 'participation in sport and physical recreation', 'sport participation' and 'participation' are also interchangeable.
Print Page
Print All