Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, oi, oi! Nothing gets our gold and green nation going like a good game of sport. AFL, rugby, cricket, pickleball: you name it, we’re game. Our obsession runs so deep that Australia even has public holidays dedicated to the biggest sporting grand finals, with crowds flocking to stadiums and pubs for a slice of the action. And while we love spectating, nothing beats the chance to play the game ourselves.
In fact, Australia takes the gold for having the highest sports participation rate out of any country in the entire world. That’s according to a recent study by PTPionner.com, a personal trainer certification website. They dug data from more than 50 countries, checking out stats like the Bloomberg health index, monthly sports participation rates, and sports medals per capita. They then gave each country an overall score, which they ranked to determine the world’s top ten most sporty countries.
Australia proudly ranked as the fifth-sportiest country, recording the highest monthly participation rate of 84 per cent. We were just beaten by Norway in first place, Finland in second, Sweden in third, and Switzerland in fourth – with each country shining in sports competitiveness, bringing home a much higher number of sports medals per capita.
That being said, Australia consistently secures a spot in the top five of the Olympic medals tally, and has also snagged world championship titles eleven times for rugby league, rugby union twice, cricket five times, netball eleven times, and hockey five times. That’s not to forget our many world champion swimmers, surfers, runners, cyclists and tennis players – including legends like Ian Thorpe, Layne Beachley, Cathy Freeman, and Anna Meares.
We’ve even got our very own sport, Australian Rules Football (or "Aussie Rules"), which the study found was the most popular to watch and play nationwide. This was common across the board, with football being the most popular sport in nine out of the ten countries, except for Finland, where ice hockey takes the top spot.