The chart illustrates compared the number of male and female Australians doing regular physical activity in 2010.
The data is broken down into 6 categories of ages for comparison: 15-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, and 65 and over.
Overall, women are more engaged in regular physical activity than men. This can be said across all ages, with the exception of the age group 15-24. In all other age groups, women hold a larger percentage of those doing regular physical activity. The largest disparity between the genders is noted in ages 34-44, with 52.5% of this group being women as compared to only 39.5% being male. This makes for a 14% difference. In contrast, the group with the smallest difference between genders are those 65 years and older where there is only less than 1% of a difference between the females and males, at 47.1 and 46.6%, respectively.
It is interesting to note that there is a pattern of trend between the ages, that coincides with both genders. For women, as the ages get older, there is a rise in female representation with a peak at ages 45-54 before a gradual decline is noted again. For example,there is 47.7% of females represented in the youngest group of 15-24, before a rise to 48.9 % in ages 25-34, followed by 52.5% in ages 35-44 before a peak of 53.3% in ages 45-54. This number then starts to drop to 53% for 53-64 before the lowest of 47.1% at 65 and over. In comparison, males follow a similar trend but instead of a rise in middle age groups, there is a corresponding decline. In the youngest group of 15-24, males have their highest percentage of representation. This number declines as the age group ages, with a drastic drop to 42.2% in ages 15-24, followed by a trough at 39.5% at ages 25-34, before a starting rise to 43.1% in those 45-54. This continues uptrend to 45.1% in ages 55-64 and 46.7% in those 65 and over.
In summary, women are higher represented in Australians doing regular physical activity, except for in the youngest age group of 15-24. A peak in female representation and a corresponding trough in male representation is noted in the middle age groups between 35-54 years of age. The difference in disparity reduces in the older groups with the percentages almost equal in those 65 and over.