Part
01
of two
Part
01
Basketball - Age Breakdown
According to our findings, there was a total of 24.3 million basketball players in the United States in 2017. Of this number, 74% is the percentage of players that played basketball for fun in the United States, i.e. amateur basketball players. Additionally, the highest percentage of amateur basketball players in the United States are below the age of 18 years, while the lowest percentage are between the ages of 50 and 64 years.
METHODOLOGY
In our search for the age breakdown of amateur basketball players in the United States, we started by focusing on industry reports, articles, biographies, blogs, basketball clubs, non-professional basketball players, tournaments, and leagues. Through the use of an extensive research process, we were able to find the percentage of amateur basketball players, a total number of all basketball players and the age breakdown of basketball players in the United States. Our findings were used to triangulate an answer to the research question that will follow in latter sections.
We first searched for the details of amateur basketball players in the United States in industry reports and articles. Because the United States is among the top countries in the world when it comes to basketball, we hoped information on the age breakdown of non-professional players was publicly available. Using this strategy, we targeted resources such as NBA, CBSports, Bleacher Report, PRNewswire, Global Sports Matters, and SFIA, but they only provided details of NBA players and similar professional-level basketball players.
Next, we started to search for information on street-playing level players, hobby clubs, and junior teams in previous interviews, surveys, and basketball focus groups. However, this strategy was unsuccessful because no relevant information on amateur basketball players was available in the target resources.
To triangulate the required information, we searched for the total number of basketball players and the age group of basketball players in the United States. We were able to locate this information on Statista. Next, we started to search for the share of amateur basketball players in the United States from the available Statista data. In this search, we found a share of basketball players in the United States that play the sport for fun. With all this information, we triangulated a credible answer with the assumption that the share of basketball participants in 2017 would provide the required information of the age breakdown of amateur basketball players in the United States.
TRIANGULATION AND CALCULATION
The percentage of basketball players by age group in the United States follows below:
***Amateur Basketball Players in the U.S.= Number of Basketball Participants in the U.S. x Percentage of Basketball Players that Play for Fun.
***Amateur Basketball Players in the U.S. = 24.3 million x 74% = 17.982 million.
Consequently, the calculation of amateur basketball players in the U.S. by age follows below.
- 18 to 29 years = 17.982 million x 26.54% = 4.772 million
- 30-49 years = 17.982 million x 22.89% = 4.116 million
- 50-64 years = 17.982 million x 6.72%= 1.208 million
We assumed that the remaining amateur basketball players in the U.S. are below 18 years. With this assumption, we calculated this number as shown below:
***Amateur Basketball Players Below 18 Years in the U.S. = 17.982 million - (4.772 million + 4.116 million + 1.208 million) = 7.886 million.
***Percentage of Amateur Basketball Players Below 18 Years in the U.S.= (7.886/17.982) x 100 = 43.85%.
AGE BREAKDOWN OF AMATEUR BASKETBALL PLAYERS IN THE UNITED STATES
From the information presented in the triangulation and calculation section of our research methodology above, we concluded that:
- 43.85% of amateur basketball players in the U.S. are below 18 years.
- 26.54% of amateur basketball players in the U.S. are between 18 and 29 years.
- 22.89% of amateur basketball players in the U.S. are between 30 and 49 years.
- 6.72% of amateur basketball players in the U.S. are between 50 and 64 years.
Lastly, 74% of children and adolescents play basketball for fun and the below 18 years age group is the largest group of basketball players in the United States.