The sports in Sweden are growing: « Strongest figures ever »
Between 2019 and 2024, the number of participation occasions has increased by almost five million, according to new figures from the National Sports Federation.
– These are the strongest figures that we can ever present in the sports movement, which is extremely positive, says Anna Iwarsson, chair of the National Sports Federation.
– We have a number of sports that are growing very much, both cheerleading, football, handball and basketball. But it is also a gratifying increase that we see in martial arts.
About 59.7 million participation occasions were reported to the National Sports Federation in 2023, compared to 58.1 million in 2019. In 2024, that figure increased by more than three million occasions, more specifically to 62.8 million.
That the number of participation occasions From 2023, Peter Eriksson, business controller at the National Sports Federation, had expected. But that it would increase by almost three million came as a surprise.
– It is not based on the fact that there have been a lot of new associations, but it is at about the same level as in recent years. Rather, it has the fact that there are a lot of new individuals, but also that the associations carry out more activities than before, he says.
The results show that the big sports, football and gymnastics continue to grow significantly. Ice hockey and handball also continue to show positive trends.
But Peter Eriksson believes that the difficult conditions for practicing indoor sports during the pandemic meant that for many it became football for the whole slant.
The starting distance for the indoor sports has thus become much longer.
– The main locomotive is that football has increased almost dramatically since 2019, 2020. A potential reason is that it is one of the sports that during the pandemic continued to keep their operations going and moved out parts of their indoor business, says Peter Eriksson.
– As football could continue with its business all the time in the same way without this break, it has probably created better conditions for the sport to continue to increase as well.
In addition to floorball that is the only major team sport showing negative tendencies, it is among the individual sports that the situation looks worse.
Tennis, swimming and equestrian Continues to decrease, but it is above all athletics that stand out with a reduction of 26 percent since 2019.
– A potential reason but that we do not have statistics or research is what is considered relevant in children and young people today. That can shift between the years, but there are smaller sports that have increased from their levels. For example, we are starting to see positive movements in several martial arts that had a hard time during the pandemic, says Eriksson.
