Aim The current study aims to describe participation and interest in 18 selected popular sports among a large sample of New Zealand adolescents with the goal of identifying opportunities for increasing youth participation in physical activity. Methods Multi-stage cluster sampling was used to select 82 secondary schools and classes of Year 10 and 12 students within schools from six geographical regions throughout New Zealand. Students completed self-administered written questionnaires.

Results The school response rate was 58%, with physical activity data available for 1730 females and 1704 males, including 637 students who self-identified as Maori. The greatest gaps between expressed interest and actual participation were reported for rugby union, rugby league, basketball, soccer and surfing (among both sexes); dance and volleyball (among females); and skateboarding (among males). When diversity of participation was modelled, increased diversity was associated with being male, having an income from part-time work, and having greater diversity of interest in the selected sports.