The bar chart compares how many adults took part in seven different major sports in a region in 1997 and 2017.
Overall, the amount of adults joining in major sports increased throughout the 20-year period. In contrast, cricket was the only sport that experienced a decline, while swimming remained unchanged.
Tennis increased from 50,000 to 55,000, but despite this relatively small growth, it was still the most played sport in the area in both years. Rugby and Football both surged a considerable amount from just above 30,000 to approximately under 50,000, making them the second and third most participated sports in 2017, respectively.
Basketball was the least played sport with just under 10,000 adult players in 1997; however, it increased to around 22,000 in 2017 while cricket dropped from 26,000 to only 7,000, causing it to become the least popular. In both years, swimming stayed the same with 35,000 adults, and golf didn’t shift much either, only increasing very slightly to roughly higher than 30,000.
