8 The chart below shows male and female fitness membership between 1970 and 2000

The chart illustrates the number of males and females registered for membership over a thirty-year period, from 1970 to 2000.

Overall, the chart indicates that there were greater fluctuations in fitness membership among men than among women. In addition, there were marked differences in the rates of male and female fitness membership in the period covered.

The number of male members started the period at just over two thousand and reached highs of for thousand and five thousand in 1975 and 1995 respectively. The lowest rates were in 1985 and more recently in 2000 when the rate dipped as low as one thousand.

Female fitness membership began lower at one thousand, doubled by 1975, and then fluctuated between two and three thousand for the remainder of the period. When male rates were at their lowest, female rates were higher. This was particularly true in 1985 when nearly three thousand women held fitness membership.