Youth and sport, more facilities from the suburbs to the schools

A widespread diffusion that, however, tends to decline with advancing age. A look at ISTAT data clearly shows how sport is widely practised among the very young, only to decline drastically as the years go by. In fact, the numbers, reported by the Istat report entitled 'The practice of sport in Italy' say that, in 2024, 21.5 million people practised a sport: this is 37.5% of the population, while it was 26.6% in 1995.

However, according to the study, "passion for sport is a distinctive trait of the youngest and reaches the highest shares among 11-14 year olds (in 2024 75.6%, of which 66.7% continuously and 8.9% occasionally). Whereas, from the age of 15, interest begins to decline, although the proportion of practitioners remains high until the age of 24 (66.1% between the ages of 15 and 17 and 53.9% between the ages of 18 and 24, respectively), and then gradually declines at later ages'.

Yet the WHO's indications are clear: sport in adolescence has an impact on mental health and sociality. So much so that the organisation recommends "policies that implement physical activity among adolescents".

The knot in our country is above all infrastructure. According to the 2023 report of the Osservatorio Valore Sport (The European House Ambrosetti), "with the presence on the national territory of 131.1 sports facilities for every 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, Italy ranks as the last country among the peers of the European Union in terms of infrastructural endowment in the sports sector: 1.9 times less than the average of France, Spain and Germany and, in particular, 2.4 times less than France". To make up for this gap over the years, however, there has been no lack of interventions, the result being a rather structured body of actions. Different measures that are traversed by two aims: the first is to encourage the practice of sport as a garrison ofinclusion in the territory, thus supporting both those who work in the field and families; the second is to create an increasingly capillary network of sports facilities.

Included in the first group is the Dote famiglia: 30 million made available to those families with an Isee of less than 15,000 euro. The list of the first 75,254 beneficiaries of the contribution of 300 euro per child was published on 25 November. Along these lines isthe RiGenerazioni project, which, with an investment of 30 million euro and the support of Sport and Health (the State Company that promotes sport and correct lifestyles), networks third sector entities, schools and institutions to create inclusive places for young people between the ages of 14 and 35. The aim is to create new spaces or improve pre-existing places, in which young people can meet. Pre-existing spaces such as oratories or schools. Specifically for oratories, an allocation of 500,000 euros has been set aside for each year of the three-year period 2025-2027, to support projects for the dissemination of sport and solidarity.