Prague, May 5 (CTK) – Czechs annually spend 1.2 percent of their total household expenditure on sport, which is the EU average and a similar share as their Western neighbours’, such as Germans, shows an analysis conducted by the UniCredit bank and released by daily Lidove noviny (LN) on Thursday.
Sport has a positive influence not only on human health, but also on the economy. The sport sector stands for some 2 percent of GDP in the EU and sport activities create jobs for 7.3 million Europeans, LN says, referring to the EC’s estimates.
According to the data of the Eurostat EU statistical office, 0.7 percent of employees work in the sport sector in the EU countries on average.
Western European countries with higher living standards also have a higher share of people employed in sport, LN says.
In the Czech Republic, 0.6 percent of inhabitants is employed in the sport sector, which is slightly less than in the whole EU. However, their number has been rising steeply in the past three years, by 3.8 percent a year on average, which is a higher pace than in the whole EU (1.4 percent), LN writes, referring to the statistics.
As far as people’s spending on sport is concerned, the Czech Republic has almost the same position as the much richer Germany, at least proportionately. Though the Czech economy performance makes up only 80 percent of the EU average, a Czech spends the same share of the total expenditure on sport as a German, LN says.
If the percentage is expressed in real money, an average Czech spent 2,500 crowns on sport, including equipment, ski and fitness passes and tickets to sport matches, in 2010.
This sum has probably slightly increased since then, said UnitCredit bank main economist Pavel Sobisek, author of the analysis entitled “Sport is an important part of life and the economy.”
Czechs practice sport actively more often than their neighbours in Slovakia, according to EU polls.
Passive sport, that is visiting sport events, also benefits the economy. In most EU countries, including the Czech Republic, more than a half of people visit sport events regularly, that is six and more times a year.
The highest share of people or 22 percent, go to stadiums in Belgium, followed by Slovakia (about 20 percent), while in the Czech Republic it is 15 percent of the population, LN writes.
