BADMINTON / Badminton nearly doubled in popularity over past decade: Ministry

Taipei, Dec. 22 (CNA) Badminton in Taiwan has almost doubled in popularity over the past decade, the Ministry of Sports said Monday, attributing the growth to the overseas success of Taiwanese players.

In the latest survey conducted by the ministry, 9.4 percent of people participating in ball-related sports play badminton, up 4.2 percentage points from the 5.2 percent reported in 2016, it said.

That growth appears significant compared with a mere 0.4 percentage point increase in public participation in ball-related sports since 2016, which the ministry said was likely boosted by the success of Taiwanese shuttlers in international competition, including winning the men's doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the women's singles at the 2023 Badminton Asia Championships.

Lee Yang (李洋), who has hung up his racket and now heads the ministry, paired up with Wang Chi-ling (王齊麟) to win back-to-back Olympic men's doubles gold medals in 2021 and 2024, while Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), widely regarded as an all-time great, dominated the women's world rankings for a record-long 214 weeks, before officially declaring her retirement in early November.

Lai Chin-ting (賴勁廷), the coach of New Taipei's Lu Jiang Elementary School team, told CNA Tai is the major reason behind the sport's increased popularity -- one that even outpaces the country's notoriously low birth rate.

Citing a nationwide elementary school competition that ended last week, Lai said such an event -- consisting of individual and team categories -- used to conclude within one week about 15 years ago. "It took two weeks to finish all of them this year."

Records on its official website indicate that the event ran for eight days in 2015, compared with 13 days in 2025, with the total number of individuals, doubles, and teams growing from 415, 188, and 108 to 993, 391, and 229, respectively, over the same period.

The figures were part of the ministry's survey on Taiwanese nationals' exercise habits, which found 35.6 percent of respondents engage in regular exercise, meaning at least three times a week, at least 30 minutes each time, at an intensity that causes them to sweat and breathe heavily.

The reported number marked an increase for the fifth consecutive year and the highest level since 2016, the ministry said, but the 0.3 percentage point hike was still within the 0.6 percentage point margin of error.

According to the ministry, the survey, which involved 25,472 samples, was conducted between June and August, targeting respondents aged 13 and over via phone.