Women ensure rugby’s continued growth

Around the world the number of adult women playing rugby continues to grow – by 10% between 2015 and 2016. That is the headline fact from our annual in-depth study of player numbers worldwide.

But not only that. The number of adult men playing rugby is actually in decline – overall there were more adults playing rugby in the world in 2016 than 2015 only due to the growth of the women’s game.

This may not have been obvious from World Rugby’sannouncements, but for the reasons we have explained in detailin past yearswe believe statistics for registered adult players are the most reliable.

This is illustrated by the data from France in this year’s returns. In recent years the number of registered (“licenced”) players in France has stood at around 11,400 – but something appears to have been lost in translation when they supplied their returns to World Rugby as the in the total of registered players for 2016 is given as… 111,427. Needless to say, this is clearly wrong (though it is included in World Rugby’s overall totals), and seems entirely due to some inexplicably strange junior figures (both for boys and girls) - the adult totals seem more sensible. Fortunately, the FFR have alsopublished their dataseparately and it roughly agrees with World Rugby’s adult totals (but not the juniors!). So for France we have used that information rather that the World Rugby data.

So – what does the latest data tell us?

Overall adult women’s rugby grew by 10.43% between 2015 and 2016, while the men’s game contracted by 0.72%. Of the 100 countries listed, adult women’s rugby is expanding faster (or as fast as) men’s rugby in 81. If this relative growth and decline continued into the future, there would be more adult women players than men by 2035.

In 16 countries women’s rugby grew while the men’s game lost players: France, New Zealand, Fiji, Argentina, United States, Spain, Georgia, Samoa, Sweden, Poland, Bermuda, Croatia, Hungary, Mauritius, Andorra, Latvia, and American Samoa. In only five (Bosnia, Cayman Islands, Netherlands, Senegal and Sri Lanka) was the opposite true.

Back in 2009 about one in every 15 registered adult players worldwide was female. By 2012 this was about one in 13. In 2014 it was one in ten, Last year it was one in nine. Now roughly one in eight rugby players are women.

The number of adult women players grew in 68 counties, in 9 countries it remained unchanged, and in 21 numbers fell (in two – Austria and Vanuatu – no data was provided for 2016).

The fastest growing countries were Tonga and Japan – in both there were six times as many registered women players than in 2015. Other countries where the number of registered players more than doubled included American Samoa, Paraguay, Zimbabwe, Colombia, St Vincent, Brazil and Malaysia. Countries were the number of adult women fell significantly – by more than half – were Thailand, Namibia, and Kazakhstan.

Registered female players in World Rugby member countries, 2016Previous years can be found in these Scrumqueens’ articles:2013,2014,2015

2016 rank (and 2015)

Country

Adult registered women players

Growth 2015-16

Total Female Registered Players (and rank)

1 (1)

United States

17,491

3.30%

28,540 (2)

2 (2)

England

10,740

14.62%

25,851 (4)

3 (3)

France

6,483

-0.25%

17,110 (6)

4 (5)

Ireland

4,120

4.83%

9,308 (9)

5 (28)

Japan

3,619

618.06%

6,638 (15)

6 (6)

Canada

3,471

-8.39%

6,020 (19)

7 (4)

Australia

3,362

-24.69%

28,087 (3)

8 (7)

South Africa

2,530

0.00%

45,038 (1)

9 (8)

Italy

2,457

9.69%

8,952 (10)

10 (11)

Spain

2,226

14.86%

3,325 (28)

11 (20)

Brazil

2,093

108.34%

4,426 (22)

12 (10)

Rwanda

2,010

0.00%

6,334 (17)

13 (13)

Wales

2,000

33.33%

7,800 (12)

14 (41)

Tonga

2,000

649.06%

8,592 (11)

15 (15)

New Zealand

1,432

11.35%

19,792 (5)

16 (18)

Argentina

1,320

26.07%

2,436 (31)

17 (16)

Hong Kong

1,256

0.00%

4,329 (23)

18 (24)

Scotland

1,169

40.67%

4,314 (24)

19 (17)

Germany

1,158

7.42%

1,783 (36)

20 (21)

India

1,130

21.90%

6,310 (18)

21 (25)

Madagascar

1,062

39.74%

3,654 (26)

22 (23)

Belgium

1,011

16.61%

1,518 (39)

23 (12)

China

1,000

-33.33%

13,861 (7)

24 (26)

Mexico

971

54.13%

1,472 (40)

25 (19)

Tunisia

926

-10.79%

4,066 (25)

26 (22)

Netherlands

851

-5.44%

1,680 (38)

27 (14)

Sri Lanka

824

-37.10%

2,424 (33)

28 (36)

Colombia

679

126.33%

679 (53)

29 (30)

Poland

574

23.71%

750 (50)

30 (27)

Russia

552

7.81%

2,099 (34)

31 (39)

Singapore

525

94.44%

1,325 (42)

32 (29)

Chile

520

6.12%

629 (54)

33 (31)

Solomon Islands

520

27.45%

2,890 (29)

34 (-)

Morocco

500

-

1,450 (41)

35 (54)

Zimbabwe

450

200.00%

2,430 (32)

36 (62)

Paraguay

450

316.67%

450 (63)

37 (33)

Botswana

383

4.93%

4,811 (21)

38 (43)

Venezuela

350

41.70%

375 (69)

39 (47)

Pakistan

344

72.00%

3,357 (27)

40 (40)

Switzerland

325

20.37%

405 (66)

41 (38)

Czech Republic

312

7.22%

525 (59)

42 (32)

Denmark

310

-16.22%

428 (65)

43 (34)

Peru

295

-1.67%

2,752 (30)

44 (42)

Sweden

284

13.60%

565 (58)

45 (37)

Senegal

250

-15.82%

7,180 (14)

46 (48)

Romania

250

25.00%

1,210 (43)

47 (44)

Kenya

245

0.00%

6,389 (16)

48 (55)

Fiji

214

42.67%

839 (47)

49 (46)

Zambia

210

5.00%

1,780 (37)

50 (64)

Malaysia

200

100.00%

750 (51)

51 (45)

Portugal

194

-18.83%

442 (64)

52 (52)

Philippines

187

10.00%

708 (52)

53 (51)

Finland

184

3.37%

184 (82)

54 (50)

Ukraine

180

0.00%

797 (49)

55 (53)

Uganda

172

14.67%

7,647 (13)

56 (67)

United Arab Emirates

172

93.26%

515 (60)

57 (58)

Uzbekistan

166

38.33%

293 (74)

58 (9)

Thailand

160

-92.56%

960 (45)

59 (69)

Uruguay

156

81.40%

382 (67)

60 (59)

Israel

150

25.00%

205 (79)

61 (57)

Moldova

145

4.32%

905 (46)

62 (65)

Samoa

142

44.90%

1,902 (35)

63 (60)

Swaziland

130

9.24%

4,879 (20)

64 (66)

Jamaica

125

37.36%

455 (62)

65 (-)

Ivory Coast

120

-

992 (44)

66 (68)

Trinidad & Tobago

119

35.23%

295 (73)

67 (63)

Hungary

112

7.69%

190 (80)

68 (61)

Bulgaria

110

0.00%

580 (57)

69 (49)

Norway

102

-46.32%

382 (68)

70 (71)

Georgia

97

18.29%

263 (76)

71 (76)

Bermuda

90

50.00%

206 (78)

72(70)

Austria(2015 Data)

85

-

85 (92)

73 (35)

Kazakhstan

84

-72.00%

304 (71)

74 (72)

Lithuania

83

3.75%

188 (81)

75 (73)

Latvia

69

6.15%

125 (85)

76 (74)

Croatia

66

6.45%

125 (86)

77 (75)

Malta

60

0.00%

620 (55)

78 (77)

Indonesia

52

0.00%

100 (87)

79 (79)

Mauritius

51

2.00%

87 (90)

80 (78)

Nigeria

50

0.00%

350 (70)

81 (83)

Chinese Taipei

50

21.95%

220 (77)

82 (87)

Guyana

50

42.86%

88 (89)

83 (95)

American Samoa

50

316.67%

50 (96)

84(80)

Vanuatu(2015 Data)

50

-

50 (97)

85 (81)

Guam

48

4.35%

492 (61)

86 (93)

Bahamas

47

88.00%

71 (94)

87 (82)

Serbia

45

9.76%

302 (72)

88 (85)

Bosnia & Herzegovina

33

-10.81%

85 (91)

89 (84)

Luxembourg

35

-5.41%

44 (98)

90 (86)

Cook Islands

30

-16.67%

582 (56)

91 (56)

Namibia

30

-78.57%

268 (75)

92 (90)

Slovenia

29

3.57%

37 (99)

93 (88)

Tahiti

28

-20.00%

155 (83)

94 (91)

Andorra

27

8.00%

92 (88)

95 (89)

Cayman

20

-33.33%

74 (93)

96 (94)

Barbados

15

0.00%

135 (84)

97 (92)

Korea

15

-40.00%

15 (100)

98 (96)

St. Vincent & The Grenadines

9

125.00%

823 (48)

Papua New Guinea

No data

No data

9,710 (8)

Niue Islands

No data

No data

55 (95)

Total

91,543

10.43%

356,107