Some interesting numbers:
£20bn The amount consumers spent on sport last year.
7.7% Annual growth of the sports sector between 1997 and 2002.
£14bn The economic value of sports volunteers (there are 5.8m of them).
0 The number of one-to-one meetings sports minister Richard Caborn has had with Tony Blair.
50 The percentage rate by which the risk of chronic heart disease drops in middle-aged men who play sport.
£8.2bn The estimated annual cost to the economy of the population's increasingly sedentary lifestyle.
79 The percentage of the population who do not regularly participate in sport and physical activity. (In France it is 76%, Germany 73%, Canada 61%, Australia 54%, Finland 48%.)
4 The number of sports club members in Germany for every one in England.
£110 Per capita spending on sport in France - about five times the British sum.
8.3 The percentage of DCMS budget allocated to sport (the arts have three times as much; and museums and galleries four times).
