Sport England release new figures on nation's activity levels

Latest figures from Sport England's Active Lives Survey show 27.7 million adults (61.8 per cent) aged 16+ in England are active, doing at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity each week. At the other end of the scale, 11.5 million people (25.7 per cent) are inactive, meaning they do less than 30 minutes of physical activity a week. The results show that activity levels in England are stable.

There has been no change in activity levels of disabled people campared to 12 months ago.   Inactivity is more common among disabled people (43 per cent) than non-disabled people (21 per cent). Also, it increases sharply as the number of impairments an individual has increases - 51 per cent of people with three or more impairments are inactive. 

The gap in activity levels between higher and lower socio-economic groups has stabilised, although people on lower incomes and disabled people are still much less likely to be active enough to benefit their health. 

Jennie Price, Chief Executive at Sport England said: 

The figures 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 per cent of its investment to tackling inactivity. This is a long-term task but it could not be more important 

Other findings show how people are choosing to be active. 

Walking remains the most popular activity, with 18.6m people walking for leisure. There are 14.5m people who walk for travel - an increase of 423,000.

A striking feature of the data is a significant increase of 518,000 more people doing interval training sessions, such as HIIT classes. Figures show 20 per cent of people did their interval training sessions at home, and 75 per cent in a leisure/fitness/sport centre or gym. 

Swimming and cycling have both decreased in popularity, with almost 283,000 fewer people swimming regularly, and 93,000 fewer people cycling.

Adventure sports has enjoyed a boost in popularity, with 337,000 more people taking part in activities such as hill and mountain walking, rock climbing, abseiling, orienteering, or high ropes.

Older people are getting more active, with the number of 55-74 year olds meeting the 150 minutes threshold increasing by 1.3 per cent, to 58.3 per cent. Brisk walking, including hill and mountain walking, appears to be driving this increase. 

The survey figues cover the 12 month period from mid- November 1016 to mid- November 2017. The results are based on a sample of almost 200,000 survey respondents

For full results, visit Sport England's website.

About Active Lives Adult Survey
Active Lives was developed in response to the new Government strategy - ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’; and Sport England’s new strategy - ‘Towards an Active Nation’. Active Lives was designed to provided a detailed and reliable insight into the physical activity habits of the nation. 

The survey provides data about adults aged 16 and over across England about the sport and physical activities they take part in and their attitudes to physical activity. In addition to sporting and fitness activities, the new survey measures levels of walking, cycling for travel and dance.

Find out more about how Active Lives measures people taking part in sport and physical activity in England, visit Sport England's website.