Abstract: This study combines the theories of welfare economics and health economics to empirically examine the effects and mechanisms of sports on the economic welfare of participants from the perspectives of income level and income inequality, using the data from the China Family Tracking Survey (CFPS). The study found that: ① The sport has an obvious economic welfare effect, which can promote the increase of participants' income level and the decrease of income inequality, and this conclusion still holds after the robustness tests of variable substitution method and instrumental variable method. ② Both human capital and social capital play a partial mediating role in the effects of sports participation on the income level and income inequality of the population. ③ The economic welfare effect of sports has a significant improvement effect on the income status of residents in different regions, and there is no obvious regional and urban-rural heterogeneity. ④ Extended analyses show that the economic welfare effect of sports also exists at the group level, which is manifested in the fact that an increase in the level of participation in sports by the group helps to promote the level of common wealth in the region.