Rich fan, poor fan: Which sports are most popular among Britain’s most and least well-off?

The comedy character Alf Garnett reportedly once described football as “working-class ballet” – but new YouGov Profiles data suggests that British sports fans on higher incomes are a little more likely to enjoy it than those with lower incomes.

While 52% of sports fans with over £100,000 in annual take-home pay – and 54% of those on £60,000 - £99,999 – follow football, this falls to 46% of Britons on less than £20,000 a year (it does, however, rise back up to 55% for fans taking home £20,000 - £39,999).

There are other notable differences.

The higher your income, for example, the more likely you are to be a rugby union fan. Some 31% of British fans on £100,000 a year or more follow it, compared to just 20% of Britons on less than £20,000 a year. Same goes for cricket: Britons in the highest-earning bracket are more likely to be fans (30%) than Britons in the lowest (20%).

Golf is another sport that gets more popular as Britons get richer: people on £100,00 a year are twice as likely to follow it as people on less than £20,000 a year (20% vs. 11%). This gulf may explain why, for example, Capgemini agreed a lengthy partnership with the Ryder Cup.

There are smaller gaps between higher and lower income fans when it comes to motorsport (25% vs. 20%) and cycling (15% vs. 10%).

Britons on the lowest incomes are more likely to be interested pool, snooker or billiards (14%) than richer Britons (8%), and the same goes for gymnastics: 12% of Britons on less than £20,000 a year follow the sport compared to 9% of Britons on more than £100,000.

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YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data for Great Britain is nationally representative of the online population and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race. Learn more about Profiles.