4147.4.55.001 - Culture and Recreation News, Jan 2004  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 31/01/2004   
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ATTENDANCE AT SPORTING EVENTS

Overall, 48.2% of Australians aged 18 years and over attended at least one sporting event in 2002. The main sport attended was Australian rules football (17.1%). This was followed by horse racing (12.9%) and motor sports (10.2%). Attendances at the latter activities, however, may be an annual event, for example attendance at the Melbourne Cup, a motor racing Grand Prix or similar event, and the publication provides further details on frequency of attendance.

Attendances (excluding motor sports) had increased from 42.1% of the population in 1995 to 44.8% in 2002. The big winners in attendance from 1995 to 2002 were Australian rules football (13.1% up to 17.1%), outdoor soccer (3.8% to 5.5%) and rugby union (2.5% to 4.6%). Decreases in attendance were reported for cricket (8.0% to 6.0%) and basketball (4.3% down to 3.0%).

In general, sports attendance is a male-dominated activity with a third more males than females (four and three million respectively) attending events in 2002. Only tennis had similar rates of attendance by both males and females (2.7%), and the female attendance rate for netball was over twice that for males (2.1% and 0.9% respectively).

These and other main features of Sports Attendance, Australia, 2002 are available free of charge on this web site.