1 | 11 Synthesis PREVIOUS RESEARCH: MAIN FINDINGS AND SHORTCOMINGS Sport participation in the Netherlands According to the latest measurements, 73% of the Dutch population aged 6 years and older participates in sport at least 12 times a year (The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) & Statistics Netherlands, 2018b), and 53.8% of the population aged 12 years and older practises sport at least once a week (Statistics Netherlands & RIVM, 2020). With these relatively high rates, the Netherlands occupies the fourth place in the general European ranking of sport participation, after Sweden, Denmark and Finland, according to the latest data of the European Commission (2018). As shown in figure 1.1, most Dutch sport participation rates are quite stable over recent years, but there are a couple of trends visible. Firstly, there is a small gradual increase in the proportion of people who never participates in sport, from 28% in 2009 (not shown in the figure), to 29% in 2013, up to 31% in 2017. This trend, possibly caused by population ageing, is even more pronounced across Europe (European Commission, 2010, 2014, 2018; Van Stam & Van den Dool, 2018). Secondly, the figures illustrate that sport participation has become diversified and de-traditionalised in recent decades, due to societal processes of individualisation, modernisation and informalisation (see, e.g., Borgers et al., 2018; Heij, 2018; Klostermann & Nagel, 2014; Van Ingen & Dekker, 2011). Although the Netherlands has the highest club membership rate in Europe (European Commission, 2018), with 28% of the Dutch population aged 6 years and older being a club member, this proportion has declined with 4% between 2012 and 2018 (The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) & Statistics Netherlands, 2018a). Additionally, measurements of NOC*NSF (2019) reveal that between 2013 and 2019, the absolute number of club members decreased by 220,200 (-4.9%) to a total of 4,270,000 members and the total number of memberships dropped with 271,000 to 5,108,000 (-5.0%). Between 2019 and 2020 an additional decline of 35,600 members and 34,900 memberships was measured (NOC*NSF, 2020). Contrastingly, practising sport in commercial settings (e.g., at health or fitness centres), in spontaneous club settings (e.g., an informal group/club consisting of family, friends or relatives) and practising sport alone became more popular in the Netherlands (European Commission,
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