Active People survey shows drop-off in participation in grassroots sport
The latest Active People survey has shown a marked drop-off in participation in grassroots sport in the last six months
Last Updated: 14/06/13 12:44pm
The findings for the six months to April are that 15.3m people are still playing sport once a week, every week - 1.4m more than 2005 when London won the vote to host the Olympic games.
However, that it is in contrast to when the first figures since the Games were released six months ago.
Then, 750,000 more people were playing sport each week than the year before - but that 'Olympic factor' appears to be fading with 220,000 fewer now playing sport every week.
That indicates that there was a big 'spike' in participation but that has now started to subside - although there are still half a million more people playing sport every week than there were a year ago.
In the report, Sport England point out that the unusually cold and long Winter - it was the coldest March for 50 years - may have had an adverse effect on the figures.
They stress that 71 per cent of the post-Olympic surge has been retained despite the weather and also that 3.86m 16 to 25-year-olds are playing sport regularly - an increase of 63,000 in the last year.