Abstract:

The present paper proposes an overview of sports activities in Romania by analysing a number of specialised sports associations registered in official statistics and by assessing their concentration degree at a national level. The research methodology was based on the Gini Strucks concentration index calculation and on the interpretation of the obtained results. The paper also assessed the evolution of sports associations on branches and on regions during the period 1992-2015, a hierarchy being formed on sports branches; a correlation was established between demographic information and the development of legally constituted specialized entities. The conducted research emphasized a fluctuating evolution of the number of sports associations registered in Romania, in the analysed period, and their uneven national distribution. The concentration degree of the registered sports associations is high when referring to regions, but moderate when referring to counties. There isn’t any direct correlation between the size of the population and the number of legally constituted sports associations.
Football is the most popular sports branch in Romania, at the opposite pole being gymnastics or wrestling, which have the fewest registered sports associations at a national level.
The obtained results may represent the basis for developing some complex analyses at a national level, which may lead to the identification of a number of solutions to revive the sports movement and to increase Romanians’ interest in sports activities.