Organised sports such as tennis and rugby union are declining in popularity as time-poor Australians turn to lifestyle activities such as walking, cycling and working out at a gym.

The 2019 AusPlay survey found soccer was the sixth most popular physical activity with 1.7 million participants each year. Tennis was seventh with 1.2 million players and basketball was ninth with just over 1 million participants.

Adult participation in organised sports such as tennis is declining as more people turn to recreational activities such as walking and working out at the gym. Credit:Edwina Pickles

However, the top five sports were recreational activities, while yoga (984,000) had more participants than Australian football, netball OR cricket.

There have been steep declines in the numbers of Australians participating in competitive sport, according to Roy Morgan Research, including a 35 per cent drop in tennis players from 711,000 to 463,000 between 2001 and 2016.