Soccer is popular in all 50 U.S. states and played not only by children, but also Gen X, Gen Y, and baby-boomers. This fact, along with an in-depth statistical report, is available in SGMA International’s Soccer Participation Report-2003 edition. This data is derived from the Superstudy® of Sports Participation (conducted by American Sports Data, Inc).
Some more facts and figures that can be found in this report include:
- Core soccer players, defined as those who play more than 52 days per year, have increased from 3.8 million in 2000 to 4.1 million in 2002-an 8% increase.
- The number of adult (age 18+) soccer players increased from 3.9 in 2000 to 5.1 million in 2002-a 30% rise.
- Participation in the 25-34 year old age group has grown by 97% in recent years — from 777,000 in 2000 to 1.534 million in 2002.
- With 6.1 million frequent (25+ days/year) participants, soccer is the second most popular sport for children, aged 6-17.
- At the state level, Utah’s incidence of soccer participation is double the national average. Among the top 30 metropolitan areas, Cincinnati has the highest rate of participation.
This soccer report can be purchased online. Available for purchase is the complete report containing both the executive summary and a full set of detailed statistical tables or just the executive summary. Either version is available in PDF or hard copy (through Kinko’s DocStore).
