57% of residents play sport actively

According to a Gulf News survey, which was carried out by YouGov-Siraj in April, 57 per cent of UAE residents are active in sports. The rest are simply inactive.

A closer look reveals that Asian respondents are the most active- compared to Arabs and Westerners.

A total of 633 respondents threw light on the different aspects of sports. Of those polled 74 were Emiratis, 146 other Arabs, 235 Asians, and 122 Westerners. Of this 493 (see on top of the page) were either moderately or very interested in sports. The rest said they were not interested.

Generally speaking, the overwhelming majority of UAE residents loved to watch sports. Football is their favourite sport (broken down, 71 per cent of Emiratis and 53 per cent of Asians choose it), followed by tennis (52 per cent Asians and 47 per cent other Arabs) and cricket (a whopping 81 per cent of Asians and 32 per cent of Westerners) - making it the sport with the maximum mass appeal among a specific cultural index (see chart on top of the page).

Significant drop

Conversely, participation in sporting activities in the UAE is rather low and trends among expatriates show a significant drop since moving here. Among the Emiratis, however, only 3 in 10 found it difficult to take part in sports.

There are several factors that impact one's participation in sports; in particular, one's nationality makes a difference (refer to chart 1).

Beginning with the infrastructure, the majority of those surveyed thought it was excellent, very good or good. Only 13 per cent thought it to be poor.

However, when it came to accessibility, a whopping 30 per cent of Westerners (and 28 per cent of Asians) believed it to be poor compared to only 4 per cent of Emiratis.

A difference of opinion is also found when discussing the cost of participation in sporting activities. Emiratis found it to be acceptable while the Asian, other Arab, and Western respondents believed that the cost factor hindered their chances of playing sports.

Respondents pointed out various reasons they believe deterred people from attending sporting events in the UAE. The most popular was traffic congestion and transportation. Next was the work overload for many residents.