School Sport New Zealand in partnership with Sport New Zealand, are pleased to release the National Census Data for secondary school sport participation for 2022.  The National participation rate of 47%, is a 2% drop from 2021 (49%) , representing 134,447 students having represented their school in one or more sports.   There were many challenges for schools, students, NSO’s and event organisers, especially at the start of 2022 with mini-lockdowns and vaccine mandates which may have impacted on rangatahi’s ability to access sport. This could have contributed to the reduction in participation. Despite the immense challenges, thank you to all our event partners and NSO's for the continued support of secondary school students and their communities for providing the opportunity to participate in sport.  Your hard work, perseverance, and innovation allowed for students across the country to enjoy the many social, physical, and mental benefits that we know exist through participation in sport.  Thank you also to the Regional Sports Directors across the motu who have been instrumental in gathering these insights and to the 462 schools who submitted their data. 

The number of teaching staff coaching increased from 16% in 2021 to 17% in 2022, whilst teachers involved in sport remained at 29%.  This represents 4089 and 7108 teachers respectively providing leadership through education.  Thank you to everyone who played a part in keeping rangatahi engaged in sport. 

Netball remains the most popular sport in secondary schools with 25,933 students involved, followed by basketball (25,595), rugby (24,625), volleyball (23,391), and football (20,464). As in other years, netball was the most popular for girls followed by volleyball and rugby was the most popular for boys followed by basketball. While the challenges we faced within the school sport sector are evident, there was also plenty of opportunity with some sports showing increases in participation numbers. Sports that have growth over 5 years include climbing (47%), surfing (4%), ultimate frisbee (6%) and volleyball (34%).

Regional Sports Directors have been provided with detailed regional School Sport NZ Census data and the National Summaries can be found on the School Sport NZ website HERE

Article added: Thursday 16 February 2023