In comparison to municipalities such as Robertsfors and Vindeln, with roughly the same population, the proportion of young people playing sports is low in Vilhelmina. But Carin Gustafsson at the Swedish Sports Confederation believes that the figures may be misleading.
– Sometimes I feel that this is not right, that the statistics are wrong. Sometimes I don’t want to believe the numbers. There have become more and more administrative requirements, so it can matter how and if you register, she says and continues:
– Some associations with good finances are not very particular about the LOK support and others may not have an experienced office list.
Low participation and low average income
Statistics from the Center for Sports Research show that in municipalities with low average income there is a covariation with lower sports participation. Among the country’s ten municipalities with the lowest income of the population are both Vilhelmina and Åsele.
– It is partly about finances, we have a development where youth club sports are becoming more and more expensive. Partly the range, the further out into the countryside you get, the smaller the selection, says Johan R Norberg, professor of sports science and continues:
– In a population of less than 7,000, the problem of sparsely populated areas is particularly difficult, add to that the fact that we are heading into a recession, the costs are increasing and the differences are increasing. The development is going in the wrong direction, he says.
Hear the Vilhelmina youth about the lack of sportsmen in the video.