Sport satisfaction

Fieldwork for the fourth year of the satisfaction survey has been completed. Headline results were published on 22 June 2012, with detailed results published in September 2012.

The fieldwork for the 2012 survey took place between February and May 2012 with approximately 43,900 respondents completing the survey.

The survey provides a detailed picture of satisfaction among sports participants. What motivates people to continue participating? What causes people to drop out of sport? Is satisfaction driven by facilities, or more about intrinsic motivations such as social opportunities? Are some things more important to participants of certain sports than other sports?

Sport England has developed an innovative survey which helps answer these questions, and which provides insight into what drives sporting satisfaction.

The research provides a statistically robust measure of satisfaction with the quality of the sporting experience by individual sport, accross 46 sports. This has given us a basis for tracking the achievement of national targets for each sport. The survey also supports improved planning and investment decisions by providing greater understanding and knowledge of satisfaction profiles in each sport.

The research was developed in consultation with national governing bodies of sport, a review of previous studies in this area, scoping work undertaken by Ipsos MORI, and qualitative research which the Henley Centre carried out in 2008 on our behalf.

For more information on the satisfaction survey, read our FAQs.

As part of the satisfaction survey, we have also conducted a survey of those who have stopped participating in sport, or reduced the frequency of their participation. The aim of the drop out survey is to find out more about why people have stopped playing sport; a total of 1,848 people completed it in 2012. The survey shows that the top reasons for dropping out of sport are time constraints and work commitments, as well as getting older. The good news is that of those who have dropped out, two-thirds say they are likely to participate in their sport again in the future.

To view previous research on lapsed participants click here.