The sports sector generated €1.9 billion in turnover in 2021, increasing by 11.9% compared to 2020, according to data released today by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
According to data from the integrated system of accounts for companies, published on Wednesday in the report “Sport in Numbers 2022”, companies in the sports sector recorded a turnover in 2021 well above the previous year, and a gross value added (GVA) of €731.9 million.
It is in this figure that the greatest increase is noted, with a 23.2% increase generated by 14,368 registered companies, up 4.5% on the previous year, with 45.7% of the turnover generated by companies managing sports facilities, sports clubs, gyms and other activities.
As for public funding, the allocation to the sports sector by local councils rose 7.4% to €323.3 million, this in 2021, the year in which funding from the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth (IPDJ) to federations reached 41 million, 3% less than the previous year.
The average expenditure per inhabitant on sports activities and equipment was €31.2, with the highest amount in the Algarve (€60) and the lowest in Madeira and the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with €12.9 and €18, respectively.
As for 2022 data – the most recent inserted in the report, still provisional – salaries of workers in the sector rose by 4.7%, to a gross monthly average of €1,366, with the regular component also rising, to €1,078.
The highest wages are recorded in sports clubs (€2,645), with sports and recreational education at the other end, at €746, below the national minimum wage of €760.
In 2022, around 44,500 people worked in the sector, a rise of 20.3%, and mostly men (64.5%), more than half under 34 years of age and also above 50% as regards the level of advanced education, with 51% already having completed higher education.
There were increases in the prices of sports goods and services, such as assistance (7.1%), the purchase of bicycles (6.5%) and participation (1.9%).
In 2021, there were 9,893 registered sports clubs, 10.6% less than in 2020, with a sharp drop in the number of players, to 483,829, a decrease of 17.7%.
Football, unsurprisingly, registers the highest number of practitioners, 26% of the total, and men predominate in several sports, most prominently in the most representative, with 93.3% of the country’s footballers male.
There were 712 high performance practitioners in 2022, 62.1% male, five-sixths under 30 years of age, with 8,265 professional titles awarded, mostly coaches (67.3%).
As for higher education, in 2021/22 10,973 students were registered in the sports areas, a rise of 4.1% over the previous period.
In the export sector, the growth in 2022 compared to 2021 was 7.6%, to a figure that reaches €580.1 million, with a positive balance of 175.6 million in the trade balance of sports goods.
Bicycles represent €345.2 million of this total ‘cake’, with gymnastics and swimming goods as the main import contributors, in addition to footwear.
