Are there really three million more of us playing sport in France, as the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, says?

Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports, welcomes this increase a few months before the Paris Olympic Games. This figure is based on the INJEP barometer, but does not take into account our new ways of doing sport at home and the significant drop in the number of licenses issued.

The candidate and future President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, in 2017, promised toincrease the base of regular athletes in France by three million (+10%). Six years later and a few months before the Paris Olympic Games, it is done and the Minister of Sports is delighted about it on the set of 4 Vérités de France 2, Wednesday January 3: “The President of the Republic said, in 2017, that he wanted three million additional regular sports practitioners. We have them, today, we are there.” Although this figure is true, according to an INJEP barometer, it should be noted that it also indicates that it is mainly the practice of sport at home that has evolved. The number of licenses issued, which is decreasing and which is an important factor, is not mentioned in this survey.

Three million more athletes since 2018, according to a barometer

Since 2018, INJEP, the national institute of youth and population education, has been interested in the evolution of sporting activity among French people aged 15 and over. The institute publishes its conclusions each year with its national barometer on the sporting practices of the French (the latest figures for 2023 come out Thursday January 11, but franceinfo has already been able to consult them).

We note that the proportion of so-called regular practitioners, that is to say who practice one of the 106 disciplines proposed by the survey at least once a week, increased from 54% in 2018 to 59% in 2023. We did the calculation and that represents around three million more athletes.

Home sport increasingly practiced

In the details of this barometer, we see that it is walking and hiking which largely contribute to this increase, for more than half of the sports practices declared by the people questioned. But what stands out above all in the survey carried out by the INJEP is that we see an evolution in the ways of practicing sport. A little more than two in ten French people practice an activity mainly at home. Particularly developed during the health crisis (47% of practitioners in 2020), home practice declined in 2022 and 2023, but remains at a level higher than that of 2018 (22%, i.e. + 4 points compared to 2018).

Conversely, practice in a club or association is in decline, it concerns 21% of practitioners in 2022 and 2023, compared to 24% in 2018.

The number of licenses, the best indicator, but which does not appear in the barometer

There is one indicator that almost does not appear in the INJEP barometer, cited by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, it is the evolution of the number of licenses issued between 2018 and 2022. However, according to a study conducted by the CDES of Limoges, managed jointly by ANDES and the National Sports Agency and validated by the Ministry of Sports, “sports licenses are the most stable longitudinal indicator for observing these trends in the sporting practice of the French.”

If we look at this indicator, we see that between 2018 and 2022, there will be around one million fewer licenses issued. Please note, however, that during the 2022 season, the number of annual licenses amounts to 15.4 million, an increase of 19.4% year-on-year after a loss of 3.5 million between 2019 and 2021. (-21.2%). The number of annual licenses issued remains lower (-5.9%) than in 2019, because the effects of health restrictions have not been fully offset.