Experian's research sets the pace for Sport England's race against obesity

'The core challenge is that over half the population do not participate in sport on a regular basis.' Mihir Warty, Sport England

Experian has partnered with Sport England in a major new initiative to combat the unprecedented rise in obesity by encouraging much more active participation in sports and fitness. Increasingly sedentary lifestyles are now having a massive impact on the nation’s health. A third of all Britons are overweight and 18 per cent are obese, a figure that has doubled in the last ten years.

Experian's research – which underpins and informs the national campaign – provides Sport England with a complete and systematic understanding of consumer behaviours and attitudes towards physical exercise in England. Experian has taken Sport England's Taking Part' and 'Active People' surveys of over 325,000 people and combined them with a range of other data sources to build a bespoke consumer classification for the population of England.

The new classification, which defines every individual in terms of their attitude to sport and physical exercise, identifies four principal groups, divided further into 19 distinct types. The classification identifies people by key lifestage factors such as age, affluence, marital status and parental obligations, which all have a bearing on people’s ability to participate in sport and organised physical activities.

The classification include types such as Fitness Class Friends, Career Focused Females, Pub League Team Mates and Early Retirement Couples, and is designed to help Sport England understand people’s various motivations, attitudes, behaviour and barriers towards sport and active recreation. The new segmentation is underpinned by key socio-demographic variables to ensure the types can be analysed by geographical area. The system also works at individual and postcode level so it can be appended to customer records.

Mihir Warty, Director of Policy and Performance at Sport England, commented: 'Our core challenge is that over half the UK population do not participate in any kind of regular physical exercise. Added to this, a significant and growing number of people are obese.

'Experian’s research and analysis has proved invaluable in our understanding of the barriers and challenges faced by people when participating in sport, physical exercise or volunteering. The classification has revealed how people have needs that vary significantly by type and we need to design a comprehensive strategy that addresses all individual circumstances. Experian’s classification will now inform our sports policy and practice decisions and help drive the overall objective of getting more people participating and volunteering, and sustaining this.'

Patrick Gray, Experian's Business Strategies division, commented: 'This project has provided a fascinating and unique insight to help us improve our understanding of people’s attitudes and behaviour towards physical exercise. Through providing a range of comprehensive variables such as attitudes, socio-demographics, health statistics and marketing communication preferences, we have created a fully-rounded picture of each classification type. Our research reveals that levels of participation and activities undertaken vary enormously by each classification type, with key lifestage events, levels of affluence and peer group influence all contributing to help explain our activity choices.'

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