Sport in Sweden

Sport is considered a national pastime in Sweden, and about half of the population actively takes part in sports activities. The most important all-embracing organisations for sports in Sweden are the Swedish Sports Confederation, and the Swedish Olympic Committee. In total over 2 million people (about 20% of the total population) are members of a sports club.

The sports with most participants are football, floorball, equestrian sports, handball, golf, gymnastics and athletics, while the sports with the largest number of television spectators are football, ice hockey, handball, bandy, golf, motor sport (especially speedway and Formula 1) and athletics. Ice hockey and football are the main sports. Winter sports are also popular, both in the number of participants and in spectators, while floorball gained large popularity in the 1990s amongst participants, spectators grew in the last five years to outnumber other team sports amongst the spectators. Other popular sports include bandy, basketball, orienteering, tennis and table tennis. Except for basketball, the American sports have not gained much popularity, although American football and baseball are practised. The Canadian sport of ringette has attracted a following and continues to grow, but is not as popular as it is in Canada and Finland.

Popular recreational sports and activities include brännboll (popular in schools), boule, kubb, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, walking, running, cycling, dancing, and hunting.

Sweden was considered in 2017 to be the fifth best per capita country in the world^[1] and world-leading in two sports, bandy^[2] and orienteering.^[3] The very strong Swedish sport floorball was not a part of the list.