According to the latest Istat data, around 25% of Italians have abandoned sport during their lifetime. And drop-out often occurs already during adolescence: among young people aged 10-24, over 18% stop playing sports, with an earlier trend among girls. The main reasons for abandoning sports are, in fact, not linked to advancing age or health problems, but above all to lack of time and loss of interest.
Data on Italians and sport: 18% abandon it before the age of 20
The data from the latest Istat report on sports practice tells us that in 2024 over 21.5 million Italians (37.5% of the population aged 3 and over) practice at least one sport in their free time. These numbers are increasing compared to previous decades and there is also a growth in continuous sports practice, compared to occasional sports. But if on the one hand the number of those who practice sports is growing, on the other hand there is also an increase in those who, at a certain point, decide to stop practicing it.
Sports practice is particularly widespread among younger people and between the ages of 11 and 14 it involves over 75% of children. However, with increasing age participation progressively decreases:
- 66% between 15 and 17 years old
- 54% between 18 and 24 years old
- 23% between 65-74 years
- 8% among those over 75
In absolute terms, we are talking about over 14.6 million Italians who declared having stopped sporting activity at some point in their lives.
Sports drop-out is slightly more common among men (27.5%) than among women (23%), but among young people the situation is reversed: in fact, it is girls who abandon sport more frequently. Between the ages of 10 and 24, approximately 1.56 million young people stop playing sports: 22% of girls and 15% of boys. The average age of dropping out is also different: girls stop on average at 14 years old, while boys stop at 15 years old. These data are particularly relevant because sport is losing ground among the young people who should represent its future. In fact, the risk is that sports practice is perceived as a temporary activity linked to childhood, rather than as a habit to be maintained throughout life.
Territorial differences also emerge: abandonment of sport is more frequent in the Centre-North (27%) than in the South (23%), where, however, sports participation is generally lower.
Why young people are leaving sports
The causes of abandoning sports are multiple and change according to life stages. For example, family reasons affect above all between the ages of 35 and 44, when they concern 11% of dropouts. Among young people, however, factors such as the lack of sports facilities or timetables that are not compatible with school weigh more heavily, which are the cause of 17% of dropouts in children between 11 and 17 years old.
Overall, however, the main causes are others:
- Lack of time: 35%
- Interest loss: 31%
- Age: 21%
- Health problems or disabilities: 15%
These percentages tell us that approximately two thirds of dropouts do not depend on physical limitations, but on factors linked to the organization of daily life and the difficulty of maintaining sport as a stable habit. In other words, between work, study and family commitments, in Italian society sport is often one of the first activities to be sacrificed. Yet its role goes far beyond simple free time: playing sport also means making an investment in health, sociality and mental well-being.
