15 million people take part in sport each week

New figures from Sport England reveal that 15.3 million people now play sport at least once a week.

According to the figures - for the first four months of 2013 - the number of young people aged between 16 and 25 playing sport regularly has reached 3.86 million.

This is an increase of nearly 63,000 on the previous 12 months, with strong advances in sports such as basketball and swimming.

Among women, boosts in boxing and netball have helped to drive a year-on-year increase of 89,900[iv], further narrowing the gender gap in sport.

Although there is still a gap - dubbed "unacceptable" by Sport England - between the number of disabled people and non-disabled people playing sport, the figures for disabled people have been rising steadily since 2005.

The latest figures show an increase of 46,600 over the past year with Paralympic sports like equestrianism and athletics growing in popularity.

According to minister for sport and tourism, Hugh Robertson, the 2012 Games have had a significant affect on the increases in participation numbers.

"The long term trend shows 1.4 million more people playing sport regularly since we won the bid in 2005," Robertson said.

"I'm encouraged to see good underlying trends in the number of young people, women and disabled people playing sport regularly and confident we have the right strategy in place to continue to deliver long term increases in the number of people playing sport."

To read the full report, click here for the Sport England website.