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Sport England has today published the latest data from the Active Lives Survey, a comprehensive snapshot of the nation’s sport and physical activity habits, based on a sample of almost 200,000 respondents.
The results show that activity levels in England are stable. 27.7 million (61.8%) of people (aged 16+) in England are active – meeting the Chief Medical Officer's guidelines of doing at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity each week – and are gaining the health benefits, including a reduced risk of dementia, depression, diabetes, and improved mental wellbeing. At the other end of the scale, 11.5 million people (25.7%) are inactive, meaning they do less than 30 minutes of physical activity a week.
- 27.7 million people (61.8% of the adult population) do the 150 minutes of activity each week recommended by the Chief Medical Officer
- Walking remains the most popular way to get active, and there’s been a rise in the number of people doing interval training such as HIIT sessions
- Levels of activity are stable across the population as a whole.
Other findings include:
- Older people are getting more active, with an increase in the number of 55-74-year-olds meeting the 150-minute threshold (up 1.3% to 58.3%). This is important given that we have an ageing population. Brisk walking, including hill and mountain walking, appears to be driving this increase.
Peter Hart, Chief Executive at British Orienteering, says:
“This report is very encouraging. The Active Lives survey is based on respondents in England and not the UK as a whole. I am very pleased to see that Orienteering is showing a growth again with more adults aged 16+ taking part in orienteering now up to 39,800 participants from 37,200 this time last year. This data continues to trend upwards and is certainly very positive for the sport of orienteering.”
Commenting on the survey results, Jennie Price, CEO of Sport England said:
“While the overall activity levels of the nation are stable, what people are choosing to do is moving with the times. The popularity of HIIT shows the power of social media, and many older people are choosing to spend their leisure time in the great outdoors. Sport England has worked closely with the National Trust, the Forestry Commission and others to support more activity outdoors, and this will remain a significant area of investment for us.
The figures also show the huge importance of investing to tackle inactivity and the inequalities between different groups in society, which was highlighted in the Government’s strategy Sporting Future. It’s why Sport England's 2017-21 strategy has, for the first time, allocated 25% of its investment to tackling inactivity.
This is a long-term task but it could not be more important.”
The full report can be found here.
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