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The Weight of Numbers: Prevalence of Overweight, Sedentary Behaviour and Sport/Fitness Participation from a Comparative Pan-European Perspective

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The Rise and Size of the Fitness Industry in Europe

Abstract

As indicated in the first chapter, it is of relevance to investigate fitness-related activities from a societal perspective. Fitness, its industry and its consumers, cannot be disconnected from the social, cultural and economic realm in which this specific and popular form of physical activity develops.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Countries included, are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Spain.

  2. 2.

    During the second wave, data have been collected for Iceland and Norway too. However, data from these two countries are not included in the analyses presented in this chapter.

  3. 3.

    The answering possibilities ranked from zero to seven.

  4. 4.

    The answering possibilities included the following categories: (i) 5 times a week or more; (ii) 3 to 4 times a week; (iii) 1 to 2 times a week; (iv) 1 to 3 times a month; (v) less often; (vi) never; (vii) don’t know.

  5. 5.

    The answering possibilities included the following categories: (i) health or fitness centre; (ii) sport club; (iii) socio-cultural club that includes sport in its activities (e.g. employees’ club, youth club, school- and university-related club); (iv) other (spontaneous); (v) no, not a member of any club (spontaneous); (vi) don’t know.

  6. 6.

    In their study, Scheerder, Helsen, Elmose-Østerlund and Nagel (2020) did consider both people being sport active in a sport club and people being sport active in a socio-cultural association as club-organised sport participants.

  7. 7.

    The answering possibilities included the following categories: (i) in a fitness centre; (ii) in a club; (iii) in a sport centre; (iv) at school/university; (v) elsewhere (spontaneous); (vi) don’t know.

  8. 8.

    When references are made to the European Union in this chapter, all 28 member states that were part of the EU between 2013 and 2019 are included. Thus, also for the pre-2013 period and the post-2019 period, all 28 countries that were once part of the EU, are taken into account in order to make comparisons as complete as possible over time. The period of 2013–2019 is determined by the fact that Croatia joined the EU as 28th member state in 2013 and that the United Kingdom left the EU at the beginning of 2020 due to the Brexit.

  9. 9.

    For children (aged five to seventeen years), the WHO physical activity recommendations imply at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity daily (World Health Organization, 2019d).

  10. 10.

    As mentioned previously, contrary to people who are practising sport in a sport club, people practising sport in a socio-cultural association are not considered as club-organised sport participants in this study. However, as shown by Scheerder et al. (2020), even if this category of participants is identified as club-organised sport participants, a negative evolution in club-organised sportparticipation can still be detected over the years.

  11. 11.

    At the occasion of the fourth enlargement in 1995, the EU contained fifteen member states. Almost ten years later, in 2004, ten new member states joined the EU. A sixth and seventh enlargement took place in 2007 and 2013, when respectively Bulgaria and Romania on the one hand and Croatia on the other joined. From 2013 till 2020, the EU consisted of 28 member states. After the UK left the EU due to the 2020 Brexit, the EU shrank again to 27 member states.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Policy in Sports & Physical Activity Research Group, KU Leuven, Louvain, Belgium

    Jeroen Scheerder & Kobe Helsen

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  1. Jeroen Scheerder
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Correspondence to Jeroen Scheerder .

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  1. KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Jeroen Scheerder

  2. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Hanna Vehmas

  3. KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Kobe Helsen

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Scheerder, J., Helsen, K. (2020). The Weight of Numbers: Prevalence of Overweight, Sedentary Behaviour and Sport/Fitness Participation from a Comparative Pan-European Perspective. In: Scheerder, J., Vehmas, H., Helsen, K. (eds) The Rise and Size of the Fitness Industry in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53348-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53348-9_2

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