According to recent data tabulations, the nation of England has seen a significant decrease in the number of adults swimming at least once a week. Sport England figures reveal that, despite more than 500 new pools opening across the country since 2006, 23.7% fewer adults are venturing into a pool for exercise. That translates to 2.5 million people in 2015-16 compared to 3.27 million in 2005-06.
The trend reinforces what was reported last year by the same organization. Sport England’s annual “Active People Survey” revealed a severe drop in participation in what historically has been England’s most popular sport – swimming – with a massive 245,000 fewer people swimming weekly over the time period of October 2013 and October 2014.
Says Nick Caplin, Director of Participation at the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA), “We have a real challenge with swimming because it’s not a sport that is continually at the forefront of people’s minds.”
“I don’t worry too much about these figures because what we’re finding is that more people are doing different water based activities like wild swimming or aquacise. But what we do need to focus on is ensuring that when people do go to a swimming pool they have a great experience and one they want to repeat.
“Overall I think our sport still has a positive story to tell.”
When last year’s figures were released telling the same story, , Sport England’s Chief Executive, Jennie Price, said, “Swimming has lagged behind running and the gym in terms of offering an attractive, modern experience to people who want to play sport and exercise. That has to change and to change quickly.”
I notice that H&S has been adding more and more restrictions on outdoor “wild” swimming, including a ban on much of the Thames. Is there any connection between these policies and the reduced popularity of swimming?
What needs to be considered is that sometimes these figures are based on ‘public swimming’ where people pay to go into a swimming session at the local pool – whereas Club / structured / organised swimming have seen an increase in members and demands, – clubs in England always struggle to get more pool time / space – but have more demand – so more pool time should perhaps be allocated for club / organised / structured use?
This really surprises me, Britain has been behind a good portion of other European countries in swimming for a while but they are just now experiencing a string of success, I would have thought participation would be up.