The graph demonstrates the number of students of a particular UK school who participated in running, basketball, swimming and football over a ten-year period from 2001 to 2011.
Overall, what stands out from the graph is that while the popularity of running grew over the period in question, and that of football remained high throughout, the number of students interested in basketball fell sharply. Swimming figures, meanwhile, saw an increased followed by a drop.
With regards to running and swimming, the starting figures were roughly identical at 18 and 20 participating students respectively. However, whereas the former climbed to reach 60 students in 2007 before levelling off the remainder of the period, the latter peaked at 50 students in 2006 and then slipped to half this figure in 2011.
Turning to the ball sports, football stayed consistently popular, with student figures remaining between 60 and 70 throughout the period. Basketball’s popularity was nearly as high as football’s in the first half of the decade studied, with the number of participating students rising from 55 to 61, but 2006 to 2008 saw student numbers crash to 21, a figure which had not changed by 2011.