Less than half of children meet activity targets

Less than half of children (47%) in England meet the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of taking part in an average of 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity a day.

Figures from Sport England’s latest Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Report, published on 7 December, also show that there remain significant inequalities in activity levels.

Black (40%) and Asian (40%) children and young people, and those from the least affluent families (44%), are still less likely to play sports or be physically active than the average across all ethnicities and affluence groups.

Girls (44%) are also less likely to be active than boys (51%). According to Sport England there are, however, some “positive stories” in the data.

These include figures showing how there are now one million (11.5%) more children and young people walking, cycling or scootering to get places than there were five years ago (academic year 2017-18) – the first year that the Active Lives Children and Young People was published.

The number of girls playing football has also increased by 68,000 (1.5%) in just one year – since the England Women’s team, the Lionesses, won Euro 2022. According to Sport England CEO, Tim Hollingsworth, the figures show, among other things, the ‘importance of physical literacy’, adding: “If we are to hit the government’s target of getting over one million more children active by 2030, then there is real work to be done.”