What is the Global Sport and SDG Impact Report?
The Global Sport and Sustainable Development Goals Impact Report is the first global baseline report on the global data available to evidence the contribution that physical education, physical activity and sport make to sustainable development. While that report which will be published in full later in 2023, the data and indicators underlying both it and the newly published policy report which summarises its findings have been made available through the online data dashboard below.
While none of these outputs constitute an exhaustive survey of the information available for review, their intention is to serve as a starting point for the data development agenda.
For more about the Global Sport and SDG Impact Indicators, see the policy brief that summarises our findings and offers highlights from the forthcoming full report.
Domain 1: Health and Wellbeing for all: SDG 3
Globally, physical inactivity has become one of the most significant health issues of the 21st century, and it worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Inactivity remains the fourth-greatest risk factor for global mortality, causing approximately 3.2 million deaths per year.[1] Furthermore, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, kill 41 million people each year – equivalent to 74 per cent of all deaths globally.[2] Given the strong body of scientific evidence showing a correlation between health and wellbeing, it is vital that we prioritise this domain and related indicators. Given the strong body of scientific evidence showing a correlation between health and wellbeing, it is vital that we prioritise this domain.
Sport and SDG Indicator 2i: Proportion (%) of adult and adolescent populations reported as insufficiently physically active, 2016
The data within this domain included in the Impact Report confirms that levels of inactivity are twice as high in high-income countries than in low-income countries,[3] which essentially means that activity levels decrease as gross national product increases. To support this, we see with imputed data that North America and the Arab states (Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) have the highest levels of insufficiently active adults, at 36.2 and 35.5 per cent respectively, while the top three most-sufficiently active countries for this indicator globally are Uganda, Mozambique and Lesotho.
Sport and SDG Indicator 2ii: Proportion (%) of adolescent population reported as insufficiently physically active, 2016–2022
The WHO reports that high levels of insufficient activity are partly due to inaction during leisure time, sedentary behaviour while working and at home, and increases in the use of ‘passive’ modes of transportation.[4] The WHO measures insufficient activity levels, so our original model indicator has been adapted to reflect this.
For adults, no trend data is currently available: only raw data was available for 2016. Data for 51 countries (24 per cent of the total) are imputed. For adolescents, trend data was available from 2010 to 2016. Data for 77 countries (37 per cent) needed to be imputed. All data for the years 2017–2022 are imputations.
Sport and SDG indicator s3.1: Proportion (%) of adult population engaging in moderate or vigorous physical activity once a week through sports, fitness and recreation (leisure)
Within this indicator, two time points were used to create trend data. It is worth noting that this is a European-only data set, so all other regions are missing. However, of all European countries, 32 per cent (14) still had missing data and needed imputations. No Commonwealth countries were missing data, and the top three countries in 2022 – using imputations to map the percentage of adults engaging in sports, fitness and recreation once a week – were Finland, Sweden and Denmark. The bottom three countries were Cyprus, Turkey and Malta. There was a small improvement globally, but a small decline for the Commonwealth, between 2016 and 2022.
Domain 5: Peaceful, Inclusive and Equitable Societies
Why is this domain important?
The inequalities within societies are reflected, and sometimes amplified, within sport, physical activity and physical education. A ‘sport for all’ ethos focuses on ensuring that programming is as inclusive as possible, and that people face as few challenges and barriers to participation as possible.
Sport and SDG indicator S16.1: Proportion (%) of population that feel safe walking alone around the area they live
While not directly linked to sport, this indicator does serve as a proxy, as the majority of grassroots sport and physical activity occurs within local areas and neighbourhoods. Furthermore, countries experiencing war or high conflict may either not be reporting, or reporting extreme results which can have a substantial effect on global averages. Globally, there was an increase of 4.73 per cent in the proportion of people stating that they feel safe walking alone around the area they live in between 2016 and 2021. This proportion improved most markedly in the Arab States region, followed by Africa; however, North America regressed over this timeframe. Only six countries globally reported data for all years between 2015 and 2022, with most reporting no data. The top three countries against this indicator in 2022, using imputations, were Palestine, Palau and North Macedonia; the bottom three were Panama, Canada and El Salvador.
[1] World Health Organization [WHO] (2010), Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241599979
[2] World Health Organization [WHO] (2022a), ‘Noncommunicable Diseases Fact Sheet’. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicablediseases
[3] World Health Organization [WHO] (2022b, October 5). Physical activity. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
[4] Ibid.