SPORT AND PHYSICAL RECREATION
Participating in sport and physical recreation and attending sporting events as spectators are important features of the Australian lifestyle. However, the sport and physical recreation sector involves more than just the people who participate or attend. It includes organisations providing sport services; manufacturers and distributors of sporting equipment; professional sports people; and other people who are involved in paid employment or voluntary work within the sector. Government and businesses also play an important role through the provision of facilities and support through grants and sponsorship.
This publication presents an overview of the sport and physical recreation sector. It contains information about the number of people who play sport; the most popular sports played; the number of people attending sporting events; the amount people spend on sport and physical recreation; the economic activity of businesses, clubs and associations involved in providing sport and physical recreation goods and services; the people who work in sport and physical recreation occupations or industries; and the support provided by volunteers.
The decisions about which data to include in the publication were guided by the ABS (2008a) Australian Culture and Leisure Classifications (ACLC). These contain classifications for culture and leisure industries, products and occupations and includes those relating to sport and physical recreation.
ABS data relating to industries, products and occupations are compiled using ABS standard classifications. The ABS (2008b) Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) is used in ABS collections relating to industry. Although the ABS (2001a) Australian and New Zealand Standard Product Classification (ANZSPC) was decommissioned in 2008 and the ABS currently uses the international Central Product Classification Version 2.0 (United Nations, 2009), the ANZSPC is still the basis for classifications used in the product data presented in this publication, as this is in accordance with how it was originally collected.
Some sport industry data are output in accordance with the ACLC and, for the presentation of information about products, the ACLC has been used as a guide in deciding which are sport and physical recreation products. Inclusions of data in, and exclusions of data from, tables in this publication have been explained in the body of the text where appropriate.
The ABS (1997) Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO) was used for the collection of ABS occupation data included in this publication from the 2001 Census of Population and Housing. In 2006, ASCO was replaced by the ABS (2009a) Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). These two classifications are completely aligned with the ACLC for sport and physical recreation occupations. As a result, the occupation data in this publication is presented in accordance with the ACLC Occupation Classification.
ABS data relating to participation in sport and physical activity; time spent on sport and outdoor activities; and sport attendance are obtained from a variety of data collections. Each collection may define sport and physical recreation activities in different ways because there is no standard classification for these activities. Nevertheless, the principles underlying the ACLC have provided a guide for the development of some of the collections, and for the data included in this publication. Where there are inconsistencies or differences between the data collections, these have been highlighted in the text.
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