Sports practice is declining in Guadeloupe, “Land of Champions” according to the Region's slogan. Ditto in Martinique, analyzed at the same time by the National Institute of Youth and Popular Education. In its latest report, this organization reveals that the West Indians are turning their backs on sport.
Are Guadeloupeans sporty? A little ? A lot ? Passionately?
The National Institute of Youth and Popular Education (INJEP) has just published the 2024 Regional Sport Sheet. This national organization, which conducts surveys and statistical studies and reports to the Ministry of Sports, has analyzed sporting practices by region: discipline(s), motivations, obstacles to practicing sports, number of licensees, graduates, jobs and sports equipment. And, according to its latest report, sports practice is declining in the Antilles zone, in which Guadeloupe and Martinique are combined.
Half of Guadeloupeans and Martiniqueans over 15 years old practice sporting activity on a regular basis, according to data from 2022 and 2023.Regular“, according to the INJEP report, corresponds to “once a week“; it's still 9 points less than in France.
Locals prefer running and walking. Next come fitness activities and gymnastics and, in third place, aquatic and nautical sports.
The Institute notes that West Indians do much less sport after the age of 30.
42% do not indulge in it at all, not even occasionally. This is 13 points more than in mainland France.
If in our islands we are less sporty, when we do sport, it is in the open air; in more than half of the cases, nature is favored.
Practicing is mainly a question of health. To a lesser extent, followers treat themselves or seek to improve their physical appearance.
The INJEP has identified 68,000 sports licenses in 2023, or 18 licenses per 100 inhabitants; a lower average than across the Atlantic.
The Guadeloupean football federation is by far the largest in 2022. It has three times more licensees (11,866) than the tennis federation (3,550). Next comes basketball (3,000), then athletics (2,531) and, in fifth position, we find the sailing federation (2,000).
In 2022, 20 athletes from Guadeloupe are considered high-level athletes, or 0.4% of all French high-level athletes. A figure that seems ridiculous, but it is not: in fact, the Guadeloupean population represents 0.6% of the French population.
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