Active NZ: Updating the Participation Landscape

The New Zealand Participation Survey 2022

This report focuses on participation in play, active recreation, and sport among young people and adults in 2022. Drawn from the Active NZ survey, it uses data collected during 2022 from 4,015 young people and 15,118 adults.

This report explores selected results from 2022 which continue to highlight inequities in play, active recreation, and sport by age, gender, ethnicity, deprivation, and disability.

During 2022, disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic observed in 2021 continued. This – along with the introduction of conditional incentives for rangatahi who completed the survey – means the participation landscape differs from earlier years of the Active NZ survey. Results must be considered in this context.

Conditional incentives were introduced to improve responses from rangatahi. While successful, this initiative appears to have encouraged a stronger response from those who are less engaged with being active and previously less inclined to complete the survey. While the sample is arguably now more reflective of a broader range of young people, this has influenced some of the findings.

This report should be read alongside the Active NZ Changes in Participation report, which details significant shifts in participation, attitudes, and barriers since 2017.

Report