The Dutch Sport Habits Study
The year 2022 becomes a sportive year with prominent sports events on the agenda, such as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games in February, the FIFA Football World Cup in Qatar at the end of this year and many other sport events. In collaboration with ePanel and Samplenomics, the first European Sport Habits study has been conducted to follow the trend developments among Europeans with regards to playing sports and watching sports events.
The first European Sport Habits study took place in the Netherlands with a national representative sample of n=300 Dutch males and females in the age of 18 to 65 years old with an online survey talking about their favorite sport habits and the views and awareness of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
Playing Sports by the Dutch People.
With the Covid-19 pandemic at the background, the Dutch people remain being sports lovers and take any possible opportunity to play their favorite sport. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation, this has not always been possible, especially for playing indoor sports.
Among the national representative sample of n=300 Dutch people, nearly half mentioned running and walking in the outdoor environment as the most played sports. Many of them added that they do running since their childhood. The second and third place sports that are mentioned are swimming and cycling, which are also popular sports in the Dutch society. A close fourth place mentioned are all kinds of ball sports, including football, basketball and volleyball. According to this sport study, more than 30% the Dutch people have a preference to frequently do water sport, cycling sport and ball sports
Fitting with the Dutch culture, also the love for winter sports, such as ice-skating and skiing, are popular. About 20% of the survey respondents indicated to like to be on the ice or in the snow to play the winter sports.
Overall seen, there is much more preference for outdoor sports (69%) when compared to indoor sports (31%).
The Dutch people embrace playing sports. We measured that almost 50% of the survey respondents indicate they play sports for about 1 to 3 times per week and often at a duration of 30 to 60 minutes each time and the bit more sport enthusiasts even up to two hours each time.
Watching Sports Events by the Dutch people.
With the 2022 Winter Olympic Games to be hold between 4th February to 20th February and hosted in Beijing China, we observe that 94% of the Dutch respondents in our Sport habits study are aware of the iconic Winter Olympic event. Among an abundant of different (media) channels, about two-third of the respondents mentioned they follow the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic news via the television and at a distance followed by the news on the internet and by the newspaper.
While the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games has yet to start, when we conducted the Sport habits study in January 2022, we observed that the overall perception among the Dutch respondents about the media reporting on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games is good.
Also, most of the respondents shows support as Beijing being the host to organize the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
More than 60% of Dutch respondents mentioned they believe that Beijing can successfully organize the 2022 Winter Olympic Games because of the experience as the hosting city for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Furthermore, the sufficient financial investments, efforts and resources to host the Winter Olympic event in Beijing and combined with the positive perception that China is a sport-minded nation contributes to the support that China has the capabilities to organize and to host the Beijing 20202 Winter Olympic Games.
The Dutch respondents also held a relatively positive attitude towards other aspects of China’s organizing capabilities, such as: Prevention and control of the Covd-19 pandemic, the friendly reception of athletes, to guarantee a safe event for the athletes, transparent and fair competitions at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The Dutch respondents rated their concerns in China’s capabilities regarding the green-environmental protection and the restrictions of the free reporting of foreign media during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
At the backdrop of the current challenging Sino-US/Sino-Europe geo-political relationships, the call for boycotting the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games has not received the support from the 55% majority of the survey respondents in the Dutch Sport Habits study for the reasons that it will actually harm the sport ambitions of the participating athletes and as well harm the interests of the mondial public who are following the Olympic Games events. The main reason to support the boycott is because the concerns on the human rights situation in China.
With the Winter Olympic Games openings ceremony awaiting in early February, the large majority of Dutch respondents at 66%, are keen to watch the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games or follow the news on television and through digital media.
Research Design & Research Methodology:
An online questionnaire was designed for the Dutch Sport Habits study to be completed by an online panel audience with a sample size of n=300. To ensure interview data collection validity, sample representative and data analysis reliability, the sample composition was drawn, invited and collected according to a national representative population in the age between 18 to 65 years in the Netherlands. The online fieldwork took place between 13-16 January 2022.
for more inquiries on the Dutch Sport Habits study, please contact ePanel or Samplenomics
