The bar chart compares the percentage of men and women who play sport regularly in four age groups.
Overall, participation fell steadily with age for both sexes, and men were more active than women in every age group. However, the difference between them narrowed considerably among the oldest people.
Among 16–24-year-olds, 72% of men and 58% of women played sport regularly. The proportion of men then fell to 60% in the 25–34 group, while the female rate dropped to 44%. This was the biggest gender gap in the chart, at 16 percentage points, compared with 14 points in the youngest group.
The gap became smaller in later life. In the 35–54 group, 44% of men and 36% of women were active, a difference of only 8 percentage points, and the male figure was the same as the female figure in the 25–34 group.
Participation was lowest among people aged 55 and over, at 30% of men and 28% of women. The difference between the sexes was therefore just 2 percentage points, and both groups were less than half as active as their counterparts in the youngest group.