The State of the Nation Report explores the findings from the ‘Sport and Active Lifestyles’ section of the National Survey for Wales, 2022-2023.
The National Survey for Wales (NSW) is a large-scale, random sample household survey of adults (ages 16-years and above) from across Wales. The survey is implemented by Welsh Government on behalf of public bodies in Wales.
Prior to 2016, Sport Wales ran an independent survey, called ‘The Active Adults Survey’. Since then, large scale public-body surveys have been brought together to improve efficiency in data collection across Wales, forming the National Survey for Wales as it is today.
Since 2016, Sport Wales has had questions about sport participation and demand embedded within the NSW. These questions are now known as the ‘Sport and Active Lifestyles’ section of the survey and are the focus of this report.
Methodology of the National Survey for Wales
The National Survey for Wales is an annual survey. Data is collected continuously throughout the year, from April to the following March. Each Spring, a new cycle begins, and data from the previous 12-months is analysed to produce an annual summary of behaviour amongst adults in Wales. The data is then weighted to represent the characteristics of the overall population in Wales, equating to approximately 2.5 million adults. Headline results are first published by Welsh Government during the summer months (usually July).
The current contract for the delivery of the National Survey for Wales comes to an end with the 2022-23 survey results. To allow for the new contract to begin, there will be a gap in the data publication for the National Survey for Wales in 2024. During this time, the set-up, testing and fieldwork for the survey will be undertaken. Data publication will therefore resume as normal in the summer of 2025, and will continue to run annually for the duration of the survey contract. Data will in turn be available for 2024-25; 2025-26; 2026-27; and 2027-28 annual cycles.
Headline findings and background information is available on the Welsh Government website.
Helpful to Know:
- In 2022-23, 11,000 adults (Ages 16+) across Wales took part in the survey.
- The “Sport and Active Lifestyles” section of the survey focussed on participation and demand in “Sport and Physical Activity”. These survey questions are available online (Pages 170-184).
- In this report, the term “Sport and/or Physical Activity” refers to the activities listed in Appendix 7.1.
- To collect “Participation” figures, respondents were asked about their sport and physical activity behaviour within the “…previous four weeks”, as this provides an indication of typical behaviour for that individual.
- Throughout, “Frequency of participation” refers to the total number of occasions an adult participated in sport and/or physical activity during the previous four weeks, averaged to provide a weekly participation estimate.
- Survey fieldwork runs continuously throughout the year which ensures that, overall, the annual responses account for seasonal variations in activity levels.
- The questions within this section of the survey allow us to report on the “Percentage of people participating in sporting activities three or more times per week”. This is a National Indicator (No. 38) for the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
Interpreting the Data:
- Each section of the report provides descriptive statistics from the Sport & Active Lifestyles section of the NSW 2022-23.
- Additionally, it is now possible to make comparisons to the previous results from the NSW 2021-22, and so changes over time have also been referenced throughout.
- Differences highlighted between population groups, and in change over time, have been highlighted where a statistically significant change has been identified.
- There are occasions throughout the report where table totals may vary despite reporting on the same topic. This can happen when there are responses that are classed as missing data, for example, a ‘don’t know’ response. Another example of where this could happen is where a particular question is asked to a representative sub-sample of the survey.
- Percentages are rounded to the nearest percent, and population figures are rounded to the nearest thousand.
Report Structure
This report is structured into sections related to the Vision for Sport in Wales. These sections are:
- Active Nation: a section containing headline information about participation behaviours.
- Everyone: a section that explores the participation behaviours of different types of adults in Wales.
- Lifelong: a section that focuses on differences by population age groups and other lifestyle factors.
- Enjoyment: this section focuses on the demand to do more sport across Wales and how much of this demand is met.
- Sport: this section presents the activities that are currently most popular in Wales. Information is provided for participation and demand for different types of sport activities.
