Swiss sports participation in an international perspective

Abstract

Switzerland is an interesting test case for international comparisons of sports participation. On the one hand, sports at the intersection of the ‘English’ and the ‘German’ model have a long tradition in Switzerland. On the other hand, the three linguistic regions (French, Italian and German) of the country point to a number of cultural differences with respect to sport which also shed some light on differences at an international level.The article presents data from three 2007 Swiss surveys that included questions on sports participation: the Swiss Health Survey, Sport Switzerland, and the Swiss Household Panel. Depending on the survey used to estimate participation rates, about two thirds (SHS) to three quarters (SPOCH, SHP) of the Swiss population participate in sport at least occasionally. In an international comparison based on recent Eurobarometer data, Switzerland emerges as one of the countries with the highest sports participation rates. However, sports participation varies between the linguistic regions as well as with respect to age, gender, citizenship and socioeconomic status. An international comparison further shows that Switzerland has comparatively high sports participation rates but that differences between linguistic regions and according to respondents’ country of origin are closely linked to differences between countries thus suggesting an impact of historical, cultural and economic factors.