Measuring Cultural Diversity of Elite Participants in Selected Australian Sports

Sport is integral to Australia’s economic and social fabric.  And Australians regularly out-perform countries with significantly larger populations.  These days, most peak sporting bodies and clubs place a high priority on inclusivity and remove barriers to participation, especially for the young.

So, how well do these sports reflect Australia’s cultural diversity at the elite level?  Are some sports more attractive to some cultural segments?  Across all sports, which cultural groups are consistently under and over-represented?  Is there evidence that the multicultural programs in popular sports are working?

After discussing the challenges of defining, collecting and analysing cultural data, this paper seeks to answer those questions and compare progress with a similar analysis from 2007.

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