Lies, Damn Lies and Adult Sport Statistics, Huw G Jones

The above is paraphrased from a famous quote by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. He must have been in a very cynical mood at the time. Personally, I prefer the George Bernard Shaw quote:

 ‘It is a mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics’

Now that I’ve got your attention, I’m sure you’re wondering what this blog is about and why I’m writing it.

Huw G Jones

Well, this year is the 30^th anniversary of the Active Adults Survey, or more boringly and more accurately, the collection of statistics on adult sport’s participation. So why is that important? Well, if you don’t know where you are in life, how can you expect to get to where you want to go? It would simply be a matter of luck and that’s not acceptable when we are using public money on that journey and asking for the time and commitment of thousands of volunteers.

So, 30 years ago the only information we had on adults taking part in sport was from a UK Government survey called the General Household Survey (GHS). This covered GB (it excluded Northern Ireland) and had a sample size of around 20,000 at its peak. The Sports Councils in England, Wales and Scotland had access to the data which showed how many people participated in sport in the month before interview.

The great thing about the GHS was that it didn’t cost the sport sector anything. Unfortunately the Government at the time realised this and began to seek financial contributions towards the cost and more importantly they also reduced the sample size. This meant that Wales-based data became next to useless because the sample size was so small.

Up popped a visionary young Research Officer with a great idea. Let’s develop our own survey in Wales which we can control and which will give us what we want. Brilliant – and that was the birth of Active Adults. Now I know what you’re thinking, who was this visionary? I bet it was the author, yours truly, Huw Jones. Well you’d be wrong because I was still working for the GB Sports Council running the GHS data. It was a guy named Tim Bull, a Swansea Jack. He commissioned Beaufort Research to produce adult sports participation data for Wales through their Welsh Omnibus Survey in 1987. A real turning point for Wales. We began to separate ourselves operationally from England and the data was used in the first sport strategy for Wales, ‘Changing Times: Changing Needs’.

Sports stats reported in the late 80's

When I arrived in late 1988, I saw the value and power of this information. A year later we commission a further survey from Beaufort and went on to develop participation data on children’s participation and schools provision of PE. Not only did we have Wales-wide data but also regional information. We could track participation overall and we also found that the area with the highest participation was Rural North West Wales with the Valleys being the lowest. A powerful suite of statistics was being put in place which enabled us and our partners to develop strategic plans and establish priorities.

But of course, once you produce national and regional information the call came from the 22 local authorities (LA), ‘why can’t we have LA-based data’? And that’s what we did next, develop a bespoke random sample survey of 22,000 people which gave us data at LA level. This was one of the most powerful data sets not just in the UK but in the World. Nobody could match the level of detail that Active Adults provided. It was also a huge investment by Sport Wales in data collection in order to help partners establish where they were and where they wanted to go.

Rachel Hughes led some innovative work with Experian to develop typologies which could be used by governing bodies to target potential members and for leisure centres to establish the best means of targeting certain groups in their catchment areas. The data had marketing power as well as being strategically important.

Has it all been worth it? Well, Sport Wales has used the data extensively, especially in its strategic planning and also advocating findings in political circles. Its use by NGBs and LAs has been variable. There are some excellent examples, Caerphilly and Hockey being particularly notable and both were quick off the mark. More use of the data could be made and must be made if we are to increase participation.

But of course, large sample survey data isn’t the answer to all our needs; it is not a panacea and should be used with other sources to justify the way forward and what we have achieved over the years. Sport is more important than simply to be distilled into a set of numbers. It’s about personal development, health and fitness, teamwork, community development, national pride and the sheer enjoyment of competition and fun.

This can be summed up in a quote from the architect who designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Imperial War Museum North in Salford, Daniel Libeskind:

‘Life is not just a series of calculations and a sum total of statistics, it’s about experience, it’s about participation, it is something more complex and more interesting than what is obvious’.

Happy 30^th Birthday ’Active Adults’! I raise a glass to you.

Dr Huw G Jones was Chief Executive of Sport Wales from 1998-2013. Prior to that he was Director of Policy Planning when he joined the organisation in 1988 having worked at the GB Sports Council in London.