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1.3 million girls fell out of love with sport. Here’s what we’re doing about it in London.
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News 23 October 2026 4 min read

1.3 million girls fell out of love with sport. Here’s what we’re doing about it in London.

Girls drift away from sport at nearly twice the rate boys do. Here’s what the research says, and what’s happened since we opened the door this September.

Teenage girls aren’t drifting away because they’ve found better things to do. The research says they’re being nudged out. Here’s what that looks like, and how a rugby session at school can start to change it.

There’s a number that ought to stop every teacher, parent and funder in their tracks: 1,331,409.

That’s how many girls in the UK Women in Sport estimated had fallen out of love with sport once they left primary school. The charity scaled the figure up from a survey of 4,000 teenagers, and the result is bigger than the population of Birmingham.

It isn’t about “changing priorities”

The headline finding was that 43% of girls who once saw themselves as sporty drifted away after primary school. For boys the figure was 24%. Nearly double.

Look at why, and the “they just get busy” explanation falls apart. 68% of girls said a fear of being judged held them back. 61% said they lacked confidence. 43% didn’t feel safe outside. 73% disliked other people watching them take part. Puberty plays a huge part too: 78% said they avoid sport when they have their period, a figure the charity’s latest research puts at 70%.

Women in Sport’s chief executive, Stephanie Hilborne, has been blunt about what this adds up to. Girls aren’t choosing to leave. They’re being squeezed out by stereotypes that are decades old.

The newest figures sting in a different way. Only 23% of teenage girls now say they dream of sporting glory, the lowest since the charity began tracking it in 2020. For boys it’s 53%. That’s after a summer when the Lionesses and the Red Roses were on every screen in the country. Visible role models matter, but they’re not enough on their own.

The good news (with an asterisk)

Sport England’s Active Lives survey gathered more than 150,000 responses from 1,750 schools across the 2024-25 school year. It found that 49.1% of children and young people in England now average at least 60 minutes of activity a day, the highest since the survey began in 2017-18. The gender gap narrowed because more girls were getting active.

Now the asterisk. Girls still sit at 46% against 52% for boys. Six percentage points, every day, across a whole generation.

What actually helps

Women in Sport’s advice is consistent. Focus on the move from primary to secondary school and on puberty, because that’s where girls slip away. Reshape what’s on offer so girls feel they deserve a place whatever their ability. Talk about periods and bodies honestly instead of pretending they’re not a factor. And make sure the space itself feels safe and unjudging.

Why rugby, and why now

Rugby has a reputation problem with plenty of girls: too rough, too muddy, built for somebody else. The numbers suggest that’s shifting. The RFU’s Impact ’25 programme, backed by more than £14.5 million of government funding between 2022 and March 2026, grew girls’ club participation by 49%, from 18,000 to 26,800. Around 40,000 girls aged six to twelve were introduced to the game over the same period.

Format matters as well. Premiership Rugby’s Project Rugby school lessons are built mostly around touch, so nobody has to sign up for a tackle just to join in. Non-contact rugby has been posting double-digit participation growth of its own.

What we’re seeing on the ground

TackleLondon is a London youth rugby and wellbeing charity, co-delivered by the Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation and The Atlas Foundation. Our pathway starts with sessions in school and runs all the way through to a community club. Since the start of the autumn term in September 2026, we’ve recorded 600 engagements from girls.

We think starting in school helps for a simple reason: it removes several of the barriers on that list. There’s no unfamiliar clubhouse to walk into and no audience of strangers. The girl next to you is someone you already know.

Six hundred isn’t going to dent a number like 1.3 million, and we’re not pretending it will. But it’s proof that when the door is open, in the right place and in the right format, girls walk through it. If you run a school, a club or a youth group in London and want to help us keep that door open, get in touch.

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