New figures illustrate impact of investing in physical activity

Every £1 spent on community sport and physical activity generates over £4 for the English economy and society. 

That’s the headline finding of new analysis by the Sport Industry Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University and Manchester Metropolitan University. 

The analysis, which we commissioned and you can download below, reveals the combined social and economic value of community sport and physical activity in England in 2022/23 was £148 billion. 

And the combined financial and non-financial investment in community sport and physical activity for the same period was £35 billion. 

The return on investment of £4.20 for every £1 spent, which updates our previous research published in 2020, further illustrates the significant benefits of investing in community sport and physical activity. 

Tim Hollingsworth, our chief executive, said: “These latest figures are a positive and compelling reminder of why we must continue to invest in getting and keeping our nation more active.

“Community sport and physical activity has a crucial role to play in growing our economy, building stronger communities and making us all healthier and happier.

“This report, along with the social value research we published last year, can help local authorities, businesses and the voluntary sector to understand the value of promoting activity.” 

The economic and social value figure of £148 billion incorporates findings on economic productivity (gross value added) from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) Sport Satellite Account. 

Investment in physical activity can improve people’s wellbeing, reduce preventable illness and provide the opportunity to cut health inequalities – one of the government’s five missions. 

This work is part of a three-year project we commissioned in 2023 to create an updated model of the social value of sport and physical activity in England. 

We published the findings from year one of this work in October 2024, when we announced that sport and physical activity generates over £100bn in social value annually. 

The next two years of the overall project will provide further analysis that builds on our understanding of how the social value of sport and physical activity is generated and distributed between different people, places, activities and stakeholders. 

Return on investment: how it's calculated

The economic and social value figure consists of £107bn of social value in the form of primary wellbeing and secondary health benefits, a further £6 billion for the replacement value of volunteers, plus £35bn in sport-related economic activity (known as gross value added – GVA). 

Meanwhile, the investment calculation of £35bn includes:  

• £26.4bn of consumer spending (on goods and equipment, members’ fees, and clothing and footwear used for participation, for example) 
• £2bn from local and national government 
• £1bn from educational institutions and charities 
• £5.6bn relating to the replacement cost of volunteer time (based on the number of regular volunteers that support sport and physical activity, the average number of hours that they contribute annually, and the average hourly wage). 

By dividing the value figure by the investment, the research creates an overall return on investment ratio for economic and social outcomes in 2022/23 of 4.20 – up from 3.91 in 2017/18. 

For more detail on how the figures were calculated, please download the report.