The last major surveys on the sporting activity of the Swiss population were conducted in 2000 and 2008. The largest survey of its kind to date involved 10,652 adults and young people. The overall picture is quite positive, because while the proportion of non-athletes remains the same at 26%, the proportion of the population who play sport regularly is growing and the proportion of occasional sportsmen and women is falling. The Swiss are generally more active in sports than their neighbors France, Germany and Italy.

Slight growth in mountain biking

In the eight years from 2000 to 2008, the proportion of mountain bikers in Switzerland grew from 5.8% to 6.1% of the population. In the past six years, mountain biking as a sport has grown by 0.2%. As the "Sport Schweiz 2014" study was carried out again six years later, it can be said that growth has been almost constant.
Mountain biking as the main sport fell slightly from 1.8% to 1.7% of the population. However, this development can be attributed to the growing polysportivity of the Swiss, as respondents listed an average of four sports in 2014.

In comparison to 2008, when 27% of mountain bikers were women, in 2014 29% of mountain bikers were women. This proportion of women, almost a third of mountain bikers, is exceptionally high internationally.Mountain biking is followed by snowboarding and tennis, which are smaller than mountain biking at 5.1% and 5.2% respectively. Just ahead of mountain biking in the ranking are yoga, Nordic walking and dancing. At 7.8%, football has only grown by around 0.4% in the last six years.

Helvetic pentathlon

The "lifetime" sports of hiking, cycling, swimming, skiing and jogging continue to grow. Of particular interest for tourism is the fact that skiing achieved remarkable growth of 8.8%. Skiing tourism within the country should therefore provide good support for winter tourism.
There are hardly any differences in the popularity of sports between urban and rural areas. However, the language regions paint different pictures. Although Ticino and French-speaking Switzerland are catching up, the German-speaking Swiss continue to do more sport.

Hiking remains the frontrunner and most popular sport in Switzerland. Around 44.3% of respondents said they regularly practiced hiking and mountain hiking. Dr. Markus Lamprecht, author of the study, explains this development: "Hiking has been able to shed its red-sock image and has become young and fresh". Lamprecht's statement is also supported by the fact that there has been an increase of 10% in the 15-29 year old male and female segment. This development is interesting in terms of the pressure to use hiking trails.Sports vacations, the absolute hit

A total of 41% of respondents say they regularly book sports vacations or sports weekends. Around 4% of the population go on mountain bike vacations. It is astonishing that more people travel by mountain bike than snowboard. Golf is also far behind, with only 1.7% of the population taking golf vacations.

Link to the study