This report investigates sports activities and exercise habits among young people in the age of 14 to 17 years living in Oslo. Two main questions are concerned. The first is to give a broad picture in changes in the number of young people who has membership in sports clubs and their exercise habits among boys and girls of different ages. The second concerns differences in sport activities among ethnic majority and minority youth. The data material used in the analysis are the Young in Oslo-studies from 1996 and 2006. At both points of data collection, more than 11 000 youth from most secondary schools in Oslo participated. Response rates of both surveys are more than 93 per cent.
A main finding is that adolescents in Oslo have become more actively involved in sports participation. When it comes to exercise habits in general, minority youth are as active as majority youth. But minority youth, and especially minority girls, are to a lesser degree integrated in sport clubs that require membership. One major explanation for this is the lack of economic resourses in immigrant families. The report discusses alternative explanations, such as religion, culture and racial discrimination.
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