Faster, higher, stronger: The economic impact of sport in Ireland

The economic case for investment in sport is a strong one, with sport yielding well-documented positive effects across multiple economic dimensions, including:

• Economic value: a 2024 assessment of the impact of sport found that the total value of sport to the Irish economy in 2018 was €3.7bn, a contribution of 1.4% of total gross value added (GVA). ¹
• Productivity: participation in sport can enhance productivity as a by-product of improved health. Numerous studies have found that regular exercise can significantly reduce mortality and lower disease risk, leading to lower absenteeism rates and extended working lifespans.
• Tourism: big-ticket sport spectacles have a proven capacity to raise a country’s profile and boost local and national economies through tourist spending on food, drink, merchandise, and accommodation, as well as the creation of supporting jobs.
• Employment: sport is a major employer. The same 2024 impact assessment found that the sport and sport-related goods sectors in Ireland are responsible for around 64,000 fulltime equivalent jobs, as well as hundreds of thousands of volunteers. ²

Such figures are attractive on their own merits, but capture only a fraction of sport’s wider positive externalities. The positive health impacts of broad participation in sport and physical activity have been comprehensively documented and include a substantially reduced risk of a wide range of chronic conditions, including those making the largest demands on Western public health systems, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, obesity, and diabetes.

A 2016 study in the UK estimated that a mere 1% reduction in inactivity could save the National Health Service around £1.2 billion annually, by reducing the prevalence of such common diseases. ³ More recently, a WHO/OECD study looking at the entire EU concluded that increasing physical activity levels to minimum recommended levels would prevent more than 10,000 premature deaths every year, and return €1.7 in economic benefits for every €1 invested. ⁴

Closer to home, Sport Ireland said that almost 100,000 cases of disease were prevented by participation in sport and exercise in 2019. ⁵ Studies elsewhere have demonstrated that regular exercise can add anything from three to seven years of life expectancy, ⁶ while participants in popular mass sporting events like Parkrun and Tough Mudder have spoken compellingly about their mental health benefits. ^{7, 8}

Just as tangibly, sport has amply demonstrated its ability to foster community cohesion through enhanced social integration and networking, to provide pathways to social purpose and integration, and even to reduce crime. ⁹ Many sporting events, such as the Dublin Marathon ¹⁰ which raises €9m per year, play a major role in charity fundraising, as well as acting as a funnel into volunteerism and a conduit to local environmentalism.

Major sporting events often act as a catalyst for local development and regeneration with long-term uplift effects, as demonstrated by the 2012 London Olympics’ transformative impact on Stratford.

Many of these benefits will overlap, of course. Improvements in productivity are often a by-product of improved health and will go on to contribute to higher economic returns; improved community cohesion contributes not only to mental health but crime reduction.

But the scale of their impact can be proactively maximised through strategy: clear policy direction, government support and targeted funding can all broaden participation. A strategic approach will therefore consider a matrix of enablers across economic, health, and social dimensions, allocating resources according to a robust analysis of expected return on investment – including externalities such as health and social benefits.

• Facilities: the upper limits of sports participation are determined by the available infrastructure. Ireland has recently committed significant funds to expanding available facilities, including €250m for sports capital and equipment (e.g. pitches, floodlighting, courts and multi-use games areas, hurling walls, gyms, etc.) and €120m for larger-scale sports infrastructure projects (e.g. venues and stadia). However, less direct measures, like requiring new developments to include spaces for physical activity, can further institutionalise the promotion of sports and physical activity.
• Coaching and training: a robust coaching and training infrastructure is crucial for developing talent, increasing participation, and ensuring long-term engagement in sport.
• Governance: high-quality governance and transparency are critical, not only to fundraising but to ensuring proper targeting of available funds to maximise returns.
• Active support: government can reduce the cost of participation in sport and exercise through direct and indirect subsidy, e.g. through corporate wellness programmes, bike-to-work schemes, and targeted tax breaks.
• School programmes: integrating sport and activity into school curricula and after-school programmes ensures that children develop a habit of participating in sport from a young age, building habits that often sustain into adulthood. Current curriculum guidelines only require primary schools to deliver 60 minutes of physical education per week, and post primary schools to deliver 120 minutes. ¹⁴
• Major events: successfully bidding for and hosting major events is a proven way to raise the profile of host regions or countries, attract tourists, and develop infrastructure for future sports tourism.

From a societal perspective, sport is a powerful benefit multiplier whose impacts can be measured across numerous social, health, and economic metrics. Capturing and measuring these effects opens up the way for greater investment in and prioritisation of sports facilities, coaches, and trainers, and helps policymakers understand the significant positive externalities of sport participation.

Governments that recognise this externality through targeted funding, infrastructure investment, and other supportive policies stand to improve more than their Olympic medal tally.