Sport and recreation: winning gold for Australian economy

SPORT and recreation industries generated $12.8 billion in income and employed around 134,000 Australians in 2011-12, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures.    

ABS director Andrew Middleton said in addition to providing significant health and social benefits, sport and physical recreation has major economic importance, which is reflected in the latest household expenditure, production and international trade data.

“Australia exported over $358 million in sport and recreation goods in 2012-13, up 26 percent from the previous year,” Mr Middleton said.

“We found that Singapore has become a major destination for exports of Australian sporting goods and services. The value of these exports to Singapore rose from $15.6 million in 2011-12 to $73.4 million in 2012-13.”

Australian households spent more than $8.2 billion on selected sport and recreation products in 2009-10.

This included $4.4 billion spent on sports and recreation services (such as sports facility hire charges and health and fitness studio charges) and $2.9 billion on sports, physical recreation and camping equipment, including swimming pools.

Further details are in Value of Sport, Australia, 2013 (cat. no. 4156.0.55.002) which is available for free download from the ABS website. 

http://www.abs.gov.au/

 

ends