Netball has held its rank as the number one female team sport in Australia with AusPlay data revealing more than one million people are involved in the sport.
Recent data released by the Australian Sports Commission, collected between July 2022 and June 2023, indicated 1,017,000 people are playing netball.
This is an increase of 5.5 per cent with the July 2021 to June 2022 report recording 964,100 participants.
The sport has also demonstrated a rise for both women and men choosing to participate.
Twenty-thousand more women played netball across 2022-23, while men and boy’s numbers experienced strong growth with 14,600 more males picking up the netball.
The rise in participation numbers coincide with one of the most successful years of Australian netball on the international stage with the Origin Australian Diamonds winning every competition including the 2023 Netball World Cup, and the Kelpies men’s team retaining the Trans-Tasman Cup.
Netball Australia interim CEO Stacey West said the growth of netball to more than one million participants nationally was cause for celebration.
"The sport is absolutely focused on developing plans to ensure the growth continues,'' Ms West said.
"We are not complacent because we fully appreciate that girls and young women today have more choices of sports to play and that's a positive change in society. The challenge we embrace is to be constantly finding new ways to make the sport even more enjoyable and to build stronger pathways to the top level of competition which our players aspire.''
"We are absolutely committed to improving all aspects of our sport and that starts with junior participation programs.''
Social interaction, enjoyment of the game and physical health benefits are the leading factors for individuals choosing to participate in netball.
West reflected on these attributes and their contribution to the netball community.
"The strength of netball is in its ability to provide team connections and build bonds within a community and our world-beating Origin Diamonds and Suncorp Super Netball stars provide constant inspiration to new generations of players,'' Ms West said.
Across the sporting landscape, netball also remains in the top five team-based sports around the country in fourth position ahead of cricket.
Warragul & District Netball Association was one of the many associations that had an increase in participation.
During the last few years with the support of their community the association changed their Saturday competition to a Monday night and have experienced a dramatic rise in participation.
“The change has allowed us to deliver a high quality service across competitions as we've increased the calibre of umpires who are available which has increased player skills and lifted the profile and the standard of our competition in our community," president Karen Romano said.
“Our summer competition has gone from 90 teams to 112 teams and our winter competition has grown roughly by eight teams.”
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Sources:
Australian Sports Commission, AUSPLAY, National Sport and Physical Activity Participation Report 2021/22 and 2022/23
Internal registration data provided by netball registration platforms PlayHQ and World Sport Action, YTD October 31
