Territorial Distribution of Sports Facilities in Spain: Classification of Autonomous Communities According to the ISID

The main aim of this study is to position the Spanish Autonomous Communities according to their offer of sports facilities, using data provided by the National Census of Sports Facilities – 2005. The study included all the sports facilities and spaces recorded in Spain in 2005. To start placing each Community, a group of experts defined and selected among 15 variables, grouped in three Partial Indicators (Population, Quality and Density), and this resulted in a Synthetic Indicator of Sports Facilities (ISID: Indicador Sintético de Instalaciones Deportivas), which was used as a global measure of the Communities according to their respective offer. The results of the ISID demonstrate the existence in Spain of important territorial disparities in the distribution of available sports facilities. Also, the results seem to indicate that the best-positioned Communities in the Population and/or Density indicators tend to have greater numbers of sports practitioners, while those low on the list have inferior participation levels.