Sports in Finland
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Most popular form of citizen activity in Finland
- Finland is one of the leading countries in Europe for physical activity 64 per cent of women and 60 per cent of men engage in physical activity an d sports at least twice a week
- Sports activities are organised mainly by sports clubs and federations
- There are 7 800 sports clubs in Finland - one club for every 650 Finns
- 130 sports federations and other national sports organisations
- 97 per cent of the clubs are non-profit making
- Over 20 per cent of the population (1,1 million Finns) are members of sports clubs
- Most of the funding of sports clubs comes from the members and the parents
Voluntary work
- Voluntary activities form the basis of the Finnish Sports culture
- There are 500 000 volunteers and leaders, 218 000 of them women
- 10 per cent of the population takes part in voluntary work in sports in their leisure time
- Value of voluntary work is estimated to be 1,5 billion euros per year
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Young people in sports
- 40 per cent of Finnish children and youth are active in sports clubs
- 93 per cent of the boys and 91 per cent of the girls are interested in sports
- The most popular sport is cycling
- The most popular sports for boys are football and floorball
- The most popular sports for girls are swimming and musical sports
Women and Men in Finnish Sports - in a nutshell
- 93 % of boys and 91 % girls are involved in sports and physical activities
- More women than men move sufficiently in terms of health, although differences between genders are small
- 58 % of sport club members are male and 42 % female
- 500 000 volunteers are involved in sports and physical activities; 43 % of them are women
- 25 % of board members of sport organisations (126) are women
- 12 % of presidents of sport organisations (126) are women
- 20 % of secretary generals of sport organisations are women
High performance sport
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