Abstract
Background: Community sport has increasingly been examined in relation to physical activity, youth development, social inclusion, health, and public policy. However, the global intellectual and thematic development of research on community sport development remains insufficiently mapped. Objectives: This study aims to map and analyse global research trends, collaboration patterns, and thematic developments in community sports development between 2016 and 2025. Methods: This study examined 408 journal articles on community sports development that were published between 2016 and 2025 using a bibliometric analysis based on Scopus. ScientoPy and Biblioshiny (Bibliometrix) were used to analyse bibliographic data obtained just from the Scopus database in order to look at publishing trends, cooperation networks, citation patterns, keyword co-occurrence, and topic progression. Results: There were 408 articles in the dataset, with a 5% yearly growth rate and a high of 54 publications in 2025. Sport (174 articles), physical activity (126), and sports involvement (89) were the most popular terms. In 2024-2025, most recent studies focused on youth-related concerns (> 35%), well-being (50.0%), and mental health (55.6%). Four clusters encompassing social integration and capital, youth development and sport participation, mental health and talent development, and emergent issues including community sport and disabilities were found using thematic mapping. Conclusions: Research on community sport development has become increasingly interdisciplinary, with sport participation increasingly connected to broader social, health, educational, and policy outcomes. Future research should strengthen longitudinal, comparative, and program-evaluation approaches to determine whether the themes identified in the bibliometric landscape translate into measurable community-level outcomes.