ESPN Article & Infographic on Competitive Youth Sports

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ESPN takes a look at the demographics–age, race/ethnicity, and household income–of youth participating in organized sports.

The article notes that while there are close to 39.82 million children ages 8-17 in the US, that only 28.7 million play some form of organized sports.

The author also points out that while organized youth sports may produce close to $5 billion in revenues, that limited data exists on the total number of kids that participate in team sports.

Some interesting findings from the article include:

• Kids who play sports usually start at a young age (between ages 6-9)
• Hispanic children begin sports at a mean age of 8.2 years (later than Caucasian and African American children)
• Household income greatly determines how early a child starts playing sports
• Children from suburban and affluent neighborhoods are more likely than those from rural and low-income neighborhoods to participate in multiple team sports
• Basketball is the dominant sport played by kids ages 6-17
• High school girls have less access to sports than boys

To learn more about organized sports in the U.S. read the full article here.