The bar chart shows the percentage of Australian school boys and girls who participated in swimming, football, netball, basketball and no sports.
Overall, boys and girls preferred different activities. Football was by far the most popular activity among boys, while netball was by far the most popular activity for girls. Swimming also had high participation for both genders, but the figures for no sports were low.
Around 20 percent of boys played football, which was the highest rate for boys. In contrast, only about 5 percent of girls took part in this sport. Netball showed the opposite pattern. Nearly 18 percent of girls engaged in netball, making it their most common activity, while only about 3 percent of boys took part in it, which was the lowest rate for boys.
Swimming was also popular. The rate for girls was around 15 percent, slightly higher than the rate for boys at 13 percent. For basketball, boys participated more at about 8 percent, compared with around 6 percent for girls. Finally, a small proportion of students did not take part in any sport, with boys at around 5 percent and girls a little lower.
