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Cijfers verzamelen over sportparticipatie gebeurt volop. Dit leidt tot meer inzichten in wie wel en wie niet sport. Maar kloppen de conclusies die beleidsmakers trekken op basis van deze cijfers wel? In mijn onderzoek trek ik de buurt in om de verhalen achter de cijfers op te halen. En dat levert verassende inzichten op, bijvoorbeeld over de grote sportbehoefte en -wensen van vrouwen met een migratieachtergrond.

Neighbours have been found to influence each other’s behaviour (contagion effect). However, little is known about the influence on sport club membership. This while increasing interest has risen for the social role of sport clubs. Sport clubs could bring people from different backgrounds together. A mixed composition is a key element in this social role. Individual characteristics are strong predictors of sport club membership. Western high educated men are more likely to be members. In contrast to people with a non Western migration background. The neighbourhood is a more fixed meeting place, which provides unique opportunities for peo ple from different backgrounds to interact. This study aims to gain more insight into the influence of neighbours on sport club membership. This research looks especially at the composition of neighbour’s migration background, since they tend to be more or less likely to be members and therefore could encourage of inhibit each other. A population database including the only regis try data of all Dutch inhabitants was merged with data of 11 sport unions. The results show a cross-level effect of neighbours on sport club membership. We find a contagion effect of neighbours’ migra tion background; having a larger proportion of neighbours with a migration background from a non-Western country reduces the odds, as expected. However, this contagion effect was not found for people with a Moroccan or Turkish background.