From a business perspective it is important to understand the breakdown of sports participation rates by gender. This information can be used for everything from developing equipment and coaching techniques that are gender specific to marketing goods and services to the players and teams.
The U.S. Statistical Abstract publishes sports participation rates by gender using National Sporting Goods Association data. The 2012 publication provides 2009 NSGA information.
Overall, the split between participants in all sports and leisure activities measured by NSGA is 49.1% male and 50.9% female. This is similar to the gender breakdown for the U.S. population.
The data shows the following sports have a higher percentage of male participants:
- Baseball
- Golf
- Basketball
- Alpine skiing
- Soccer
- Tennis.
On the other hand, the following sports have a higher percentage of female participants:
- Exercising with equipment
- Swimming
- Volleyball
- Exercise walking
- Aerobic exercising
- Yoga.
More current information will be available in the 2013 Statistical Abstract or it can be purchased from NSGA; however, variances from the 2009 data are likely to be minimal.