Professional Football Leads Baseball by 2-to-1 as Nation’s Favorite Sport

For the second year in a row, professional football leads baseball by 2-to-1 (30% to 15%) as the nation’s favorite sport. Nineteen years ago, in 1985, when The Harris Poll^® first asked this question, professional football and baseball were in a virtual tie (24% to 23%) for first place. With a few small wobbles in the numbers, football (up six points since 1985) has steadily increased its following at the expense of baseball (down 8 points since 1985).

While baseball (15%) has slipped badly, it is still ahead of college football (11%), men’s pro basketball (7%), auto racing (7%), and men’s college basketball (6%).

These are the results of a nationwide Harris Interactive® survey of 2,555 U.S. adults surveyed online between September 20 and 26, 2004.

With the exception of pro football and baseball, the numbers of people naming sports as their favorites are not very different from what they were in 1985. However, some sports have moved up and down over the last nineteen years. In the late 1990s, when Michael Jordan was at his peak, those picking men’s pro basketball as their favorite sport increased, from only six percent in 1985 to 13 percent in 1997 and 1998. It has now slipped back to seven percent.

Men’s tennis was the favorite of five percent of U.S. adults who follow more than one sport in 1985; it has now slipped to one percent.

The survey also finds some sizable differences between different segments of the population. Pro football has more fans among "Generation X," those aged 28-39, (42%), in two incomes groups, those with household incomes of $15,000 to under $25,000 and $50,000 to under $75,000 (both 40%), in the East (38%) and among African Americans (38%).

Baseball does best among U.S. adults who follow more than one sport with household incomes of between $35,000 and under $50,000 (22%) and with matures, aged 59 and over (20%).

College football is particularly popular in the South (19%), among college graduates (19%) and adults in more households with incomes of $75,000 or more (16%).

Auto racing (which includes NASCAR) does best in the two lowest income groups with incomes of $25,000 or less (each with 12%) and those who never went to college (11%).

"If you had to choose, which ONE of these sports would you say is your favorite?"

Base: All adults who follow more than one sport

Note: NA = Not asked. Previously did not distinguish between men and women’s sports when asking these questions.

Note: Numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

""If you had to choose, which ONE of these sports would you say is your favorite?"

Base: All adults who follow more than one sport

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between September 20 and 26, 2004 among a nationwide cross section of 2,555 adults (aged 18 and over), of whom 1,465 follow more than one sport. Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points for the overall sample. The sampling error for the adults who follow more than one sport sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points of what it would be if the entire U.S. adult population who follow more than one sport had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, and weighting. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online sample was not a probability sample.

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