Research and analysis

Sport Satellite Account for the UK 2024: Key findings

Published 1 October 2024

Summary of research

• Working collaboratively with the Home Country Sports Councils (Sport England, Sport Wales, Sport Scotland and Sport Northern Ireland), DCMS is publishing new research measuring the size of the sports sector in the economy.

• DCMS commissioned researchers from Sheffield Hallam University, Sports Economics Austria (SpEA) and Econmove to produce an updated UK Sport Satellite Account (SSA).

• The purpose of the new research is to have a more accurate understanding of the scale and makeup of the sports sector in the UK. This will allow policymakers to be better informed when making decisions about supporting the UK’s sport sector.

• The data collected and presented for this is based on the year 2021. This means that these results are likely to be significantly impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which should be considered when interpreting the results.

• The UK Sport Satellite Account is based on the revised pan-European methodology agreed in the EU allowing for estimation of the value of the sports economy. 

• Using the most recent Vilnius definition of sport (3.0) and the Sport Satellite Account methodology, researchers are able to more accurately capture the size of the sector.

• This latest SSA marks the most recent comprehensive evaluation of the sport sector in the UK, providing the most accurate estimates by using up to date modelling methodologies, considering characteristic and connected sporting goods. Characteristic sporting goods capture typical products for the sector including sports facility operation services, services of sports clubs and fitness facilities and other sporting services, whilst connected goods relate to supporting goods and activities such as manufacturing sportswear or sports media. Results are broken down by nation and local authority. Both active and passive sports have also been measured.

Direct economic output

The results estimated that sport characteristic and connected activity contributed £99.6 billion of direct economic output to the UK in 2021. This is equivalent to 2.5% of total UK economic output for the year.

Active and passive sport

Of that direct output, 87% is attributable to active sport (£86.8 billion), while 13% is attributable to passive sport (£12.8 billion). Active sport relates to all expenditure relating to persons participating in sport. Passive sport, however, includes things such as sports betting and spectating sporting events.

Indirect output and the multiplier effect

• Spending in the sports industry induces spending in other sectors. The multiplier effect illustrates how spending within the sport industry cascades through the economy, affecting various sectors beyond the initial point of expenditure. For example, if you spend money on tickets to a netball match, part of that money goes to employ the officials running the match. Those officials then spend their income in other parts of the economy, so money cascades through the economy.

• The overall multiplier effect for sport is 1.55, meaning that for every £1 spent in sport, this generates a further 55p in GVA elsewhere in the economy.

Direct Gross Value Added (GVA)

GVA measures the contribution of sport to overall GDP. The results estimated that the sport characteristic and connected goods contributed £53.6 billion of direct GVA to the UK economy in 2021 (equivalent to 2.6% of the total UK GVA in 2021).

Direct sport-related employment

The results estimated that the sport sector directly contributed to roughly 1.25 million jobs (headcount) in the UK in 2021. This is 3.9% of total employment in the UK during 2021. The sport sector is estimated to have employed 878,000 people on full-time equivalent jobs (FTE). This is 3.5% of the total FTE jobs in the UK for 2021.

Wages

The results estimated that £34.8 billion in wages are paid in sport-related occupations. This is equivalent to 3.1% of all wages in the UK economy in 2021.

What do the results mean?

• DCMS official statistics, based on previous SSA proportions, showed that sport contributed £43.3 billion (£48.2 billion in 2021 prices) to the UK’s 2016 GVA (equivalent to 2.44% of the UK’s total GVA).
• Although not directly comparable due to changes in definitions, the latest estimate of £53.6 billion from this research project represents a real terms increase in the region of 13% over 5 years to 2021. *Sport-related GVA has risen from 2.44% of total UK GVA in 2016 to 2.48% in 2019 and to 2.6% of total UK GVA in 2021, demonstrating relative growth in the size of the sport sector as a proportion of the UK over the period.^{[footnote 1]}
• Between 2019 (pre-COVID-19) and 2021, the value of sport-related GVA dropped slightly in real terms by around 2%. However, this is a lower decrease than the UK’s overall GVA, which fell by 7% over the same period.
• This indicates that sport-related industries have performed more strongly than the UK economy as a whole, which contracted to a greater extent during the COVID-19 pandemic. This highlights the sport sector’s contribution to the Government’s Growth mission.
• Comparing sport to other sectors can help to put results into context. The £53.6 billion that sport characteristic and connected goods contributed to the UK’s GVA in 2021 was higher than other industries, such as ‘construction of buildings’ (£40.2 billion), ‘food and beverage services’ (£36.5 billion), and ‘telecoms’ (£33.3 billion).^{[footnote 2]}

Further results for 2021

The below table shows the UK’s direct sport-related output and sport related output as a share of total UK output, broken down by nation. The same information is also provided for GVA.

The below table also shows the number and proportion of direct sport-related full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs, broken down by each Home Country.

Further geographical breakdowns, including local authority estimates for GVA, are included in the full report.

	England	Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland	UK
Sport-related output (direct)	£87.0 billion	£3.6 billion	£6.7 billion	£2.3 billion	£99.6 billion
% of total output (direct)	2.5%	2.6%	2.4%	2.7%	2.5%
Sport-related GVA (direct)	£46.7 billion	£1.9 billion	£3.8 billion	£1.2 billion	£53.6 billion
% of total GVA (direct)	2.7%	2.7%	2.5%	2.6%	2.6%
Sport-related employment FTE (direct)	749,000 jobs	38,000 jobs	69,000 jobs	21,000 jobs	878,000 jobs
Sport-related % of total FT employment (direct)	3.5%	3.6%	3.4%	3.4%	3.5%

Methodological notes

• Measuring the size of the sport sector is historically difficult as a harmonised definition of sport and an agreed methodology have been hard to come by.
• This research uses the Vilnius definition of sport and the new Sport Satellite Account methodology to allow researchers to more accurately capture the size of the sport sector.
• While the SSA is effective in assessing the direct and indirect economic impacts of sport, it does not fully capture other significant societal aspects, such as the effects of volunteering, health benefits, or social factors like educational attainment and crime reduction, which cannot be quantified using this methodology.
• Full details of the methodology can be found in the published report.

Terminology

• Gross Value Added (GVA) measures the contribution of the sport industry to the economy’s overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This includes the value of goods and services produced by the sector, minus the cost of inputs required to produce them.
• Economic output is the total value of production or sales generated directly by the sport industry. This encompasses ticket sales, merchandise, broadcasting rights, sponsorships, and other revenue streams specific to sports activities.

• Consumer spending measures direct consumer spending on sports-related activities, such as attending live events, purchasing sports equipment, and spending on associated travel and accommodation.

• Employment levels measure the number of jobs created directly by the sport industry, including those in sports teams, clubs, event management, and sports facilities, as well as related retail sectors such as sporting goods stores.

• The employment rate is the proportion of people employed, who are in the working-age population (aged 16 to 64).

• Wages and salaries are the total income paid to people working directly within the sport industry. This includes wages, salaries, and any other compensation for employment.

• Full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount are both methods used to count members within an organisation. FTE refers to the number of full-time hours being worked, while headcount is the total number of employees in a sector or organisation.

• Active sport is all expenditures which are related to people participating in sport. 

• Passive sport, however, is sport consumption without actively doing sport, but because of interest in sports. For example, passive sport includes sports related gambling, sport media, and spectating at sporting events.^{[footnote 3]}

• Characteristic goods: These are typical products within the field under study. Satellite accounts can detail how these products are produced, the types of producers involved, the labour and capital used, and the efficiency of the production process. For example, in sport, characteristic products include sports facility operation services, services of sports clubs and fitness facilities and other sporting services.

• Connected goods: While relevant, these products are not typical or may belong to broader product categories. For example, in sport, connected products include sport related construction and media products. Satellite accounts do not provide production details for connected products, and their classification depends on the economic organisation within a country and the purpose of the satellite account. In the sporting context, the distinction between characteristic and connected goods hinges on the presence of sport participation within a category. For instance, CPA code 93.1 is included as it pertains to the operation of sport and fitness clubs. Similarly, many aspects of education that encourage children’s participation in sport are included.

1. It is important to note the potential impact of changes to the Vilnius definition and estimation methodology (the 2021 results consider the Vilnius 3.0 definition of sport whilst the 2018 results consider the Vilnius 2.0 definition) which may influence growth estimates. ↩

2. Source: Sheffield Hallam University. For more information, please see the full report. ↩

3. Many entries in the Vilnius definition have active as well as passive characteristics, but in most cases, one of them dominates. Only few entries are indicated as both. An example of ‘both’ are sport shoes which can be used both for participation and as fashion items. The significance of the active sport element is that it relates directly to Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis as this part is associated (mainly) with health and wellbeing benefits. Spectating, for example, may have some wellbeing benefits associated with acquisition of social capital, but this is much less recognised in the literature. ↩