Questions over UK Sport’s Olympic strategy are likely to be raised again after a study found that only 7% of respondents said they had been inspired to take up sport by the Games.

One of the key pledges that led to London securing the 2012 Olympics was that the Games would inspire “millions” more young people to take part in sport. Before Tokyo 2020 the expressed strategy of UK Sport is to create “more medals and medallists to inspire the nation”. But despite 2012 and a record medal haul in Rio last summer, participation numbers in sport continue to fall and the idea of an effective legacy begins to look like a mirage.

According to a survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of the company Pro Bono Economics, 7% of 2,000 respondents said they had been inspired to take up sport by the Olympics. Of the rest, 18% blamed their busy lifestyle for their failure to get active; 17% cited the cost of playing sport as being the main thing stopping them; 12% claimed a lack of local facilities. Another 12% said they simply lacked the confidence to participate in sport.

When asked for their opinions on UK Sport’s Olympic strategy, people showed little support. The strategy, which is backed by £345m of funding from UK Sport, prioritises sports with the best prospect of winning medals, while others see their funding severely cut. Of those polled in the YouGov survey only 7% backed this approach while 9% said the money would be better spent on schemes targetting those who do not exercise enough.

The Paralympian Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson was withering about the figures. “In the UK we like to think we are a nation that loves sport but perhaps we are more of a nation who loves watching sport,” she said. “We know there is a disconnect between elite sport and participation. Currently inactivity costs the nation £20bn a year so this is not something we can keep putting off. Unless we look more creatively about how we engage everyone in physical activity, we may win medals but we will be bottom of the league table on health and wellbeing.”

According to figures from Sport England, the percentage of English people regularly taking part in sport continues to decline. The annual Active People Survey records the number of people participating in moderate physical activity at least once a month. While the absolute number of participants has increased in the past 10 years – from 23,349,900 to 25,318,300 – as a percentage of the total population it has declined, from 57.4% to 57%. At the same time, however, the number of people who do moderate exercise at least three times a week has continued to rise, suggesting England is increasingly a nation with a sporting divide.

The survey was commissioned by Pro Bono Economics before its annual lecture which takes place on Monday at the Royal Institution. The lecturer will be the journalist and author Simon Kuper, who said of the findings: “Britain really has got sport upside down. Why spend billions on an Olympics when few kids in the country have the facilities to play judo, fencing or equestrianism anywhere near their homes?”