Movement makes people happier and healthier, and it does the same thing for our communities – with life-changing, sustainable benefits that have huge economic and social value.
As part of our Uniting the Movement strategy, we want sport and physical activity organisations to be recognised as essential partners to help overcome national and local challenges.
The evaluation tools featured in this section are designed to help measure the impact sport and physical activities can have on the population’s health, society and the economy.
Each resource can be used by you as part of your wider case for retaining or securing additional investment in sport and physical activity.
Social and economic value of community sport and physical activity
We commissioned the Sport Industry Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University to calculate the social impact and the economic importance of sport and physical activity in England.
They found that, when measured against costs of engagement and providing opportunities, for every £1 spent on community sport and physical activity, a return on investment (ROI) of £3.91 was created for individuals and society.
Furthermore, the combined economic and social value (SROI) of taking part in community sport and physical activity in England in 2017/2018 was £85.5 billion.
The research showed that £42 billion worth of value was created from improved life satisfaction for 24 million participants and 3.9 million volunteers through their involvement in sport and physical activity.
The findings also demonstrate how physical activity plays an important role in preventing a number of serious physical and mental health conditions, with the research showing this had a value of £9.5bn.
Of this amount, £5.2bn was in healthcare savings, while £1.7bn was in social care savings.
More than £3.6bn worth of savings were generated by the prevention of 900,000 cases of diabetes, while a further £3.5bn of value was generated through avoided dementia cases and the related care.
A total of £450 million was saved by preventing 30 million additional GP visits.
A further £20bn of value came from stronger and safer communities, including:
Future work
This new social and economic value of community sport and physical activity data is a significant step forward from the previous SROI model, but it's also highlighted where further work is required to:
Good principles for calculating social and economic value
When undertaking projects to calculate social and economic value, we recommend partner organisations apply the following principles to build a coherent and persuasive body of evidence.