The bar chart compares the percentages of males aged 16-25 in a particular country who preferred watching six different sports with those who actually participated in them.
Overall, watching sports was more popular than participating in most cases. Football and horse riding attracted the highest proportions of viewers, whereas fishing was the only sport in which the percentage of participants was considerably higher than that of viewers. In general, the gap between the two figures was particularly noticeable for football, fishing and horse riding.
Looking first at the sports with the largest differences, football had the highest proportion of young men who preferred watching, at about 45%, compared with only 10% who took part in it. A similar pattern can be seen in horse riding and racing: around 45% enjoyed watching this sport, while the figure for participation was much lower, at approximately 18%. Fishing showed the opposite trend. Only 15% preferred watching it, but half of the males surveyed participated in fishing, making it the most popular sport for participation by a considerable margin
The remaining three sports showed smaller differences. Around 30% of the group watched rugby, compared with 20% who participated in it. Basketball attracted roughly 37% of viewers, while one quarter actually took part in the sport. Badminton had almost identical figures for participation and watching, with both standing at about 25-29%. This made it the sport with the smallest gap between the two categories