Wairarapa has topped the country in a New Zealand Secondary Schools Sport Council census on pupil and teacher involvement in sport.
The census is based on 2010 figures and involved 19 regions from Northland to Southland and all ports in-between.
Wairarapa's 71 per cent involvement left it well clear of its rivalswith Otago next best on 66 and Aorangi (South and Mid-Canterbury) third on 65. Then came Hawke's Bay 58, Southland, Whanganui and Wellington all 57, Manawatu 55, Canterbury, Taranaki and Waikato 53 and Auckland 52.
In the separate categories, Wairarapa had the highest participation of girls and boys in secondary school sport, each on 71 per cent, and total staff involvement in sport here comes in at 37 per cent, equal highest with Otago.
In the total staff who are coaches category, Wairarapa sits at 21 per cent, behind only Hawke's Bay and Otago at 23, while in the teaching staff involved in sport category Wairarapa is first equal with Otago on 46 per cent.
The only category where Wairarapa drops out of the first three is regarding teaching staff who are coaches. It is headed by Hawke's Bay on 30 per cent, followed by Otago 28, Aorangi 27, Wanganui and Manawatu 25 and Canterbury and Wairarapa on 24.
There are interesting statistics in the census which looks at students involved on a sport-by-sport basis over the 2000-10 period with some major codes showing decreases in overall numbers between 2006 and 2010.
Major gains were made by rugby league (up 154pc), equestrian (up 22pc), football (up 17pc) and cycling (up 12pc) while swimming were up 2pc but the news wasn't so good for rugby union (down 3pc), athletics (down 4pc), basketball (down 5pc), cricket (down 9pc), golf (down 8pc), netball (down 6pc) tennis (down 7pc) and wrestling (down 32pc).
