Barriers to taking part in more physical activities for sport, exercise or recreation among New Zealand adults
2023, % of adults
| Response | % of adults |
|---|---|
| Because of Covid | 0.1% |
| Building up/tapering as part of a training plan/sports event (e.g. marathon) | None |
| Building up to do more | None |
| Cost of travel/petrol to activities | None |
| Decrease in daylight hours over winter | 0.1% |
| Don't have the time | 0.5% |
| I already do a good amount of physical activity | 5.7% |
| I am injured from an injury caused by something else | 7.7% |
| I am injured from an injury caused by sport, exercise or recreational physical activity | 8.2% |
| I am not interested in sport or physical activity | None |
| I am too tired or don’t have the energy | 31.4% |
| I don’t feel welcome | 2.4% |
| I don’t have the equipment I need | 9.6% |
| I don’t like other people seeing me being physically active | 5.3% |
| I don’t want to fail | 4.1% |
| I have a disability that prevents me from participating | 3.6% |
| I have no one to do it with | 10.2% |
| I have no transport to get to places | 4.4% |
| I haven’t got the skills / don’t know how to | 3.8% |
| Illness/been unwell e.g. virus, flu, bug | 0.4% |
| I’m not confident enough | 8.3% |
| I’m not fit enough | 14.3% |
| I'm pregnant/recently had a baby | 0.7% |
| I prefer to spend my time on other interests / hobbies | 11.3% |
| I struggle to motivate myself | 29.999999999999999% |
| I’ve got out of the habit | 21.3% |
| Medical issues (excluding poor health/disability) | 0.7% |
| Mental health/depression/anxiety | 0.1% |
| My age | 0.2% |
| My health is not good enough | 7.4% |
| Not the season for my sport | 0.1% |
| On holiday | 0.1% |
| Other commitments are taking priority (e.g. work, family) | 64.2% |
| The activity of my choice doesn’t fit my routine | 12.3% |
| The activity of my choice is too expensive | 15.8% |
| There are no appropriate facilities or places conveniently located to do what I want to do | 8.5% |
| The weather | 21.3% |
Notes
Respondents were asked the following questions:
Q32: For what reasons are you not doing as much physical activity as you would like? / For what reasons do you not want to do more physical activity than you are currently doing?
Definitions
Sport: activities undertaken in a competition or tournament or informally, and individuals differ in their degree of competitiveness irrespective of how they participate.
Active recreation: all activities not considered to be sport. For adults - physical activity done specifically for the purpose of sport, exercise or recreation; for young people the word ‘recreation’ was changed to ‘fun’ and PE was also included.
Data calculation/treatment
To account for biases in the sample design and non-response bias, the data was weighted before reporting. The purpose of weighting was to adjust the sample to represent the overall New Zealand population, using the 2018 Census.
For more information
Data provided by
Dataset name
Active NZ Survey: Main report data tables 2023
Webpage:
https://sportnz.org.nz/resources/active-nz-snapshot-of-the-participation-landscape-2023/
How to find the data
At URL provided, under 'Report and data tables' menu, download 'Main data tables'.
Import & extraction details
File as imported: Active NZ Survey: Main report data tables 2023
From the dataset Active NZ Survey: Main report data tables 2023, this data was extracted:
- Sheet: Current_Section 5_Adults
- Range:
C12:BU56 - Provided: 3,080 data points
This data forms the table Sport - Hurdles in sport and active recreation among adults 2023.
Dataset originally released on:
June 2024
About this dataset
Sport NZ’s Active NZ Survey provides a point-in-time snapshot of participation in sport and active recreation explored through the lenses of age, gender, ethnicity and deprivation.
Purpose of collection
Sport New Zealand (Sport NZ) is mandated to monitor New Zealanders’ participation in physical activity. One of Sport NZ’s functions is to “promote and advocate the importance of participation in physical activity by all New Zealanders for their health and wellbeing”. This includes targeting specific population groups such as Pacific peoples, women, older New Zealanders and people with disabilities, as well as ensuring sport, recreation and physical activity are culturally appropriate for Māori.
Method of collection/Data provider
This report focuses on:
• how much participation happens in any given week, how many people are participating, and who they are
• how people participate
• how young people allocate their time spent in organised and informal participation
• what motivates participation
• what the barriers are to participation.