October 05, 2014 (Toronto, ON) – A new recent study has revealed that B.C. comes in first with highest levels of fitness participation while Quebec lags behind. How active are today’s Canadians? Ipsos Reid, Canada’s market intelligence leader, asked scores of respondents about their fitness preferences, and overall, the results show that they are an active bunch. A new study conducted by Ipsos Reid in partnership with the Canadian Sporting Goods Association (CSGA) reveals that eight-in-ten Canadian households nationally have at least one person who engages in a fitness or sports activity.
The study comes as a result of a recent partnership between Ipsos Reid and the CSGA. The partnership explores new and evolving trends in the sporting goods industry, providing members with the most current information on equipment, and sports and fitness participation. Based on ongoing proprietary consumer surveys, standard category reports are updated every quarter.
The Fitness and Sports Participation report was conducted through Ipsos’ Household Equipment Canada study, interviewing over 16,500 households about their current participation levels. The survey defines fitness and sports participation as households where any individual over five years of age in the home has participated in one or more physical activity at least three times in the past 12 months.
When comparing overall participation among provinces, the results reveal that B.C. households are the most active, with 86% of all households engaging in any fitness or sports activity. Quebecers are least likely to participate, with only 77% of the province engaged in a fitness or sports activity. The survey also finds that the average number of fitness and sports activities among participating households for all of Canada is 3.9. This number rises to 4.2 in the Prairies, while it drops to a low of 3.6 in Quebec.
“We conduct research every quarter on participation levels for a wide range of exercise, fitness and sports activities,” says Adrian Murphy, Vice President with Ipsos Reid. “The data uncovers a number of truths about Canadian fitness levels. In particular, it sheds light on the fact that while physical activity is ingrained in the lives of many Canadians, participation varies greatly when broken down across provinces and among different sport and fitness activities.”
The top three fitness and sports activities nationally include walking for exercise (46%), exercising at home with equipment (24%), and cycling / biking (24%). But when looked at by region, participation fluctuates. While walking for exercise is most popular in Manitoba and Saskatchewan (55%) and B.C. (56%), it is less so in Quebec (36%). Additionally, three-in-ten Prairie households exercise at home with equipment, compared with only one-in-five in Quebec. And whereas nearly one-in-five B.C. households participate in swimming, only one-in-ten in Quebec do so.
“The findings offer actionable insights that can be used by our industry to better understand sports participation trends in Canada, and planning of new products and services to Canadian sports participants,” adds Julian Savory, President and CEO of the CSGA.
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted in July 2014. For this survey, a sample of 16,599 consumers were drawn at random from the Ipsos online panel in Canada. Weighting was employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian household population according to Statistics Canada census data and to provide results intended to approximate the entire population. Sample size and report accuracy vary by category. For instance, for a sample size of 1,500 the results can be considered accurate within ±2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population been surveyed at random. A sample of 1,000 would be accurate within ±3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. While for a sample of 500, the margin of error would be ±4.4 percentage points. The margin of error will be larger when the data is broken out within market segments.