SPARC Trends in Participation in Sport and Active Leisure 1997 - 2001

Ethnic groups

Trends among young people’s activity levels

Note: Not all differences shown in the figure are significant, as some sample sizes are relatively small. See text for commentary.

Even though Maori young people are one of the most active ethnic groups, since 1997 their level of activity has fallen significantly from 75% who were active in 1997 to 66% in 2001.
This drop has occurred for both young boys and girls, and across all age groups – 76% of Maori aged 5-12 year olds were active in 1997 compared with 67% in 2001 and 72% of 13-17 year olds were active in 1997 compared with 62% in 2001.
One of the biggest changes is an increase in the proportion of sedentary Maori young people which has increased from 6% to 18% overall, including from 5% to 17% for Maori boys and from 6% to 20% for Maori girls.
Since 1997 there has also been a fall in those Maori young people who are relatively active from 28% to 18%, in particular for those young people aged 5-12 years old (from 31% to 14%).

Since 1997, there has been little overall change in how active European young people are, hovering between 69% and 71%.
However, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of young people aged 13-17 years who are inactive, from 34% in 1997 to 43% in 2001, and a corresponding fall in the proportion of 13-17 year olds who are relatively active (from 22% to 16%).

Since 1997, the proportion of inactive Pacific young people has increased overall from 40% to around 53% (in both 1999 and 2001), although this cannot be regarded as statistically significant due to the relatively small sample sizes overall.
There is a significant pattern for girls, however – 30% of Pacific girls were inactive in 1997 compared with around 60% in 1999 and 2001.
There has also been a significant increase in the proportion of sedentary Pacific young people from 6% in 1997 to 33% in 2001, which is reflected by a drop in the proportion of Pacific young people who are highly active from 40% in 1997 to 26% in 2001.
Young people aged 5-12 years old show a significant increase in those who are relatively active – from 13% in 1997 to 33% in 2001, but a corresponding fall in the proportion who are highly active – from 44% to 22%. There has also been a fall in the proportion that is relatively inactive, from 45% in 1999 to 20% in 2001.

From 1997 to 1999, the proportion of young people from Other ethnic groups who are active was around 56%, but in 2001 it increased to almost seven-in-ten (69%). Again, this cannot be regarded as statistically significant due to the relatively small sample sizes overall.
There has been, though, a significant increase in young people who are relatively active from 18% in 1997 to 38% in 2001; in particular those young people aged 5-12 years of age increased from 11% to 45%, although the proportion of this age group who are highly active also fell significantly over this period from 41% to 19%.
Boys in these ethnic groups are less active now than they were in 1997 – in 1997 62% were active compared with 55% in 2001 – suggesting that mainly girls contributed to the increase in activity levels; this cannot be reliably concluded, however, due to the small sample size of girls in Other ethnic groups (less than 30 in 2001).

Note: Not all differences shown in the figure are significant, as some sample sizes are relatively small. See text for commentary.

Since 1997, there has been little change in adult Maori levels of activity overall.
However, there has been an overall increase in activity for young Maori adults (aged 18-24 years old) from 69% in 1997 to 76% in 2001, although this is not a significant change.
On the other hand, Maori aged 50 years or over are less active in 2001 than they were in 1997 (65% and 77% respectively), with a significant increase in older Maori adults who are sedentary – from 10% in 1997 to 21% in 2001.
Those Maori adults aged 25-34 years who are relatively active also fell significantly from 22% in 1997 to 13% in 2001.

On average, significantly more adult Europeans are active in 2001 (72%) than they were in 1997 (68%).
This is due largely to a significant rise in the proportion of European women who are active –from 66% in 1997 to 73% in 2001; men showed little change, hovering at around 70%.
The increase in activity levels is most marked in those adults aged 50 years or over – in 1997 68% of European adults of this age were active compared with 77% in 2001. This is reflected also in significant falls in the proportions of these adults who are relatively inactive (from 21% in 1997 to 14% in 2001) and sedentary (13% in 1999 to 9% in 2001), and a significant increase in the proportion who are highly active (from 56% to 61%).

Since 1997, there has been little change in Pacific adults’ levels of activity overall, and no significant changes among different samples of Pacific adults.

Since 1997, the proportion of adults from Other ethnic groups who are active has fallen from 58% to 49% in 2001, although this cannot be regarded as a significant change.
There has, however, been a significant fall in those adults who are highly active from 44% in 1997 to 30% in 2001, in particular among adults aged 25-34 years old.
Overall, men show little change in their level of activity, hovering between 55% and 60%, whereas the proportion of active women fell significantly from 59% in 1997 to 43% in 2001. This is reflected in there being more sedentary women now than there were in 1997 (9% in 1997 compared with 33% in 2001) and fewer highly active women (45% in 1997 falling to 22% in 2001).

4 The term ‘Other ethnic group’ refers to those people who have not identified as Maori, European or Pacific people – see Definitions, p 53 .

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