MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. (BRAIN) — Participation in team sports by children age 7-17 showed a 5.8 percent decline last year according to the latest data released by the National Sporting Goods Association. The NSGA's 2018 edition of Sports Participation in the U.S. revealed a slight (0.6 percent) decline in overall team sports participation.
While NSGA saw a one-year decrease in youth team sports participation, since 2012 youth team sports participation has increase 2.4 percent.
NSGA previously announced that participation in Wheeled Sports — a category that includes bike riding — was flat last year. The organization has not yet released bike-specific data from its latest study.
Last year, NSGA found that bicycling participation was up 0.5 percent over 2015, while the larger Wheel Sports category was down 0.5 percent.
The NSGA report is one of the largest and longest standing participation studies in the sports industry. The study has tracked cycling since 1984, and defines participants as those Americans age 7 and up who have ridden a bike six or more days per year.
NSGA sells its full reports for about $400 for members and $600 for non-members. The organization releases a limited amount of data publicly.
