Organized sport in Germany has more than 28 million members, more than ever before. The statistics of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) show more than 28 million members for the first time since the inventory began in 1954. In total, the approximately 86,000 sports clubs in the country recorded 28,764,951 memberships as of the reporting date at the beginning of the year. That is around 890,000 more memberships than in the previous year, which corresponds to an increase of 3.2 percent.
“This is a great message for sport in Germany and for our society,” said DOSB President Thomas Weikert: “The numbers confirm what we are all working hard for. Sport and its clubs are an essential part of our society and an indispensable part of it. No other area of our coexistence reaches and unites as many people as sport.”
According to the DOSB, every second child is a member of a sports club
The previous high of memberships was 27.99 million in 2013. Organized sport had to cope with losses during the corona pandemic. In the last three years, however, the numbers have again developed significantly positively.
It is noteworthy that since then, many children and older people in particular have joined sports clubs. Statistics from the state sports associations show that in the age group 0 to 14, the number of memberships among boys and girls increased by 9.32 percent, twice as much as the overall average for all age groups. “This means that every second child in Germany is a member of a sports club,” says the DOSB statement. In the over-60s category, more than 230,000 new memberships (4.92 percent) were added to the state sports associations.
However, despite the record, many deficiencies remain, as the German sports umbrella organization also points out. Many clubs lack “volunteers” as well as trainers and trainers. In addition, many sports facilities are in “poor condition and have been waiting for comprehensive modernization for decades,” explained Michaela Röhrbein, head of sports development at the DOSB. The 86,000 clubs “went beyond their limits in many places”. Röhrbein therefore appealed to political decision-makers and called for more support in strengthening voluntary work, reducing bureaucracy and taking measures to improve the “crumbling sports infrastructure”.
