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World Footy Census 2004 - Summary

  • Sunday, May 01 2005 @ 10:46 pm ACST
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General News The World Footy Census 2004 has, hopefully, answered the common question, of just how many players there are playing Aussie Rules in various countries around the world. It can also stand as an historic record of where the game has progressed to, and can be used as a measuring stick in the years and decades to come. It took 5 months to gather all the results from across 34 Australian Rules playing nations. Here we present all the results summarised and the countries ranked by total player numbers.

Remember that these results are based on players having to have played at least four games in 2004, be it traditional 18 per side football, or 9-a-side metro league, or something similar. This includes juniors, so a lot of great work with juniors in Auskick-style clinics is not necessarily counted here. This survey is not meant to rate the efforts or potential of countries - each has their own unique circumstances and challenges. And note when you look at the ordered list of 30 countries, that there are around 200 other countries for which the total number of players is approximately zero, so all those listed here are further advanced in developing the game!

As has been explained in previous articles, we do not claim these results to be 100% accurate. But we do believe that in almost all cases, player numbers will be within around 10% (perhaps more variable in countries with only one or two teams). This should be more than adequate for comparing countries, or judging growth rates in the years ahead.

Counting teams has in many ways been more difficult than counting players. Especially in countries like the US, where the line between a large club and a league can be particularly blurred. Depending on opinion, we could have ended up crediting that country with anywhere from 20 to 50 teams. Still, the most important statistic, in our opinion, is the number of players actively involved in playing the game.

From the data, it is clear that NZ and PNG are the two stand-out countries, both with sufficient numbers that they are poised to become fully-fledged Australian Rules football nations. This is provided that the current trends are continued and consolidated. Interestingly, both these countries now have enough players to rival Tasmania and the Northern Territory, two traditional Aussie Rules regions of Australia that have relatively small populations. Both have provided many champions to Australian football, most recently in the national AFL. Both NZ and PNG must be close to producing a home grown AFL draftee of their own. AFL South Africa have projections of similar numbers in the next 10 years, and hopefully by then junior growth will have accelerated in a number of the other countries that have laid foundations.

It is sobering to note, however, that the number of players in Australia still far outstrips the entire total number from the rest of the world. In fact, only around 7% of the players in the world are playing outside of Australia. Another way of looking at it is that for every player outside of Australia, there are around 12 players in Australia.

So perhaps the next major numbers milestone will be when the "rest of the world" total starts to become comparable to the Aussie numbers. When might that be? Any attempt at estimating would require a baseline of data to extrapolate from - this census could provide one half of the data. Perhaps another census in a few years will give us an opportunity to make a realistic prediction. For now, an educated guess suggests that growth will have to accelerate even faster if the numbers are to keep up with Australia, where the expanding markets of New South Wales and Queensland are still providing rapid increases in player numbers. Nevertheless, a strong foundation is being laid in many countries, and one day perhaps we will see that provide a launching pad for an Aussie Rules explosion.

So finally, thank you once again to all those that have helped compile these statistics, and we hope you have found them interesting and useful reading. A link to a Census 2004 page has been added to our Resources section, for easy future reference. It will be very interesting to see how things have changed in a few years time.


Alphabetical listing

CountrySenior Teams Senior Players Junior Players Total Players
Argentina460120180
Australia388894680230912325592
Austria115015
Belgium115015
Brunei140040
Canada1431450364
Chile220020
China250050
Denmark1020060260
England184350435
France230030
Germany578078
Indonesia250100150
Ireland613132163
Israel220020
Japan1230515320
Lebanon345045
Malaysia125025
Nauru103000300
Netherlands115015
New Zealand225361069011226
Papua New Guinea64192080009920
Philippines130030
Scotland327027
Samoa480166246
Singapore1251035
Solomon Islands230150180
South Africa6160540700
Spain558058
Sweden71610161
Thailand125025
Tonga00105105
United States3885540895
Vietnam250050




Ranked by Total Players (excluding Australia)

RankCountrySenior Teams Senior Players Junior Players Total Players
1New Zealand225361069011226
2Papua New Guinea64192080009920
3United States3885540895
4South Africa6160540700
5England184350435
6Canada1431450364
7Japan1230515320
8Nauru103000300
9Denmark1020060260
10Samoa480166246
11Solomon Islands230150180
12Argentina460120180
13Ireland613132163
14Sweden71610161
15Indonesia250100150
16Tonga00105105
17Germany578078
18Spain558058
19China250050
20Vietnam250050
21Lebanon345045
22Brunei140040
23Singapore1251035
24France230030
25Philippines130030
26Scotland327027
27Malaysia125025
28Thailand125025
29Israel220020
30Chile220020
31Austria115015
32Belgium115015
33Netherlands115015
Total25361052007826183
Australia388894680230912325592


Note: The figures for NZ and PNG are primarily dependent on data supplied by those countries. AFL criteria for measuring player numbers is more strict than those we used, and they more conservatively estimate numbers for NZ at around 1000 and PNG about 3000.