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Queensland Sport, Exercise and Recreation Survey

The Queensland, Sport, Exercise, and Recreation Surveys were undertaken to provide data about the physical activity of Queensland children and adults.

Both surveys provide information on the physical activity trends of Queensland children and adults prior to COVID-19.

For further statistics on physical activity participation trends please refer to:

Children surveys

The 2019 Queensland Sport, Exercise and Recreation survey of Children provided representative, robust and reliable data to measure Queensland children’s involvement in physical activity outside of school hours.

A total of 5273 Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews were conducted with parents or carers of children aged 5 to 17 years across five sampling regions within Queensland between December 2018 and April 2019.

Read the full report.

Key findings

Some of the key insights of QSERSC:

  • 84.2% of Queensland children participated in some form of daily physical activity.
  • Gender plays a part in physical activity preferences. Boys participate more frequently in active transport, cycling and scootering, sport, and general exercise and fitness compared to girls. Girls participate more frequently in walking and recreational activities compared to boys.
  • Older age groups, 12–14 year olds and 15–17 year olds, participate less frequently in physical activity than the younger groups, 5–8 years old and 9–11 years old.
  • Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children and children with disability participated most frequently in active play, chores or work involving physical activity, and cycling and scootering.
  • The top four organised sports were soccer, netball, basketball and rugby league.
  • The main barriers to children’s participation were parent related including include lack of time (30.7 per cent), work commitments (27.5 per cent) and expense/costs (26.8 per cent)
  • Screen time may have an impact on children’s physical activity levels with children in the low physical activity segment spending significantly more time on screens for schoolwork, leisure, entertainment and other reasons.

Adult surveys

The Queensland, Sport, Exercise, and Recreation Survey (QSERSA) for Adults provided information about:

  • physical activity levels and preferences of Queensland adults
  • participation barriers and enablers
  • social and economic data.

The surveys collected robust data at a Queensland regional level and ensure Queensland Government’s policy, program development and planning for sport and recreation participation aligned with the needs of Queenslanders.

The 2015, 2016 and 2018 surveys had very similar sample sizes of approximately 7,200 adult respondents across the state.

2018 survey

The 2018 survey was conducted between 29 June and 15 August 2018.

Download the 2018 Research Report (PDF, 3MB).

Key findings:

  • 75% of Queenslanders could be described as participants in physical activities for sports, exercise or recreation during the last 12 months. The remaining 25% identify as non-participants.
  • 63% are high frequency participants (participation is once a week or more often), a further 11% are medium frequency participants (participation is at least once a fortnight to at least once every 6 months), while just 1% are low frequency participants (participation at least once a year).
  • These participation rates have remained stable since 2015 (no statistically significant changes since the original benchmark survey), with each group varying no more than 2 percentage points over the three years of this study.

2015 and 2016 surveys

Last updated: 14 Jul 2022