The chart below gives information about the most common sports played in New Zealand in 2002.

The bar chart presents the percentage of young people in New Zealand who participated in various sports in 2002, broken down by gender.

Overall

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, netball was the most popular sport among

girls

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,

whereas

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soccer attracted the largest proportion of

boys

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. Only 1% of

girls

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played cricket, the lowest share among females, compared with 10% of

boys

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. In martial arts,

boys

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' participation was roughly three times that of

girls

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, at 9% versus 3%.

However

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, females (4%) marginally outnumbered males (3.5%) in athletics. Netball accounted for a quarter of

girls

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,

while

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just 1% of

boys

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played it, making it the least common sport among males. There was a slight difference in tennis participation, with

boys

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at 8% and

girls

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at 7%.

Similarly

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, the figure for males playing basketball stood at just over 7%, in comparison with 6% for females.

In contrast

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, nearly 25% of

boys

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preferred soccer, and only 5% of

girls

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joined

this

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activity. Meanwhile, twice as many

girls

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(23%) as

boys

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(13%) took part in swimming.