Community size and sport participation across 22 countries

The objective of this study was to examine, across 22 countries, the association between community size and individual sport, team sport, and exercise participation. Hierarchal non-linear Bernoulli modeling is used to examine the association between community size (100,000-10,000; <10,000) and (a) individual sport, (b) team sport, and (c) exercise participation. After controlling for country-level clustering and demographic variables, those residing a community with between 100,000 and 10,000 residents are more likely to participate in individual sport [odds ratio (OR) = 1.14; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.05-1.23] while residing in a community with less than 10,000 residents is unrelated (OR = 1.06; 95% CI = 0.96-1.19). Those residing in communities with between 100,000 and 10,000 residents were more likely to participate in team sport (OR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.01-1.45) while residing in a community with less than 10,000 residents is unrelated (OR = 1.02; 95% CI = 0.88-1.18). Residing in a community with between 100,000 and 10,000 residents is unrelated to exercise participation (OR = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.89-1.7), while residing in a community with less than 10,000 residents is negatively related to exercise participation (OR = 0.86; 95% CI = 0.79-0.93). These findings provide novel evidence that communities between 100,000 and 10,000 residents are related to increased sport participation, particularly team sport participation.