Fitness activities drive children’s participation, but too many are inactive

Less than half of all children (49.1%) in England meet the Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO) guidelines of taking part in an average of 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity every day. The figure comes from Sport England’s latest Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Report, published in December.

On a more positive note, the report does show that the number of young people taking part in sport and physical activity is at the highest level since the Active Lives Survey was published in 2017-18. The improvement has been extremely slow, however. In the seven years since Active Lives recording began, there has only been an increase of 5.8% in the number of children and young people achieving the CMO guidelines.

Perhaps most worryingly, more than a quarter (28.4%) of children do less than 30 minutes of physical activity each day. The findings also reinforce that participation in sport and physical activity varies greatly among different demographic groups. Significant inequalities remain in activity levels, with Black (41%) and Asian (43%) children and young people, and those from the least affluent families (45%), still less likely to play sport or be physically active than the average across all ethnicities and affluence groups.

Girls (46%) are also less likely to be active than boys (52%), and the gender gap is widest between boys and girls from Asian (11.2%), Black (10.6%) and other (12.5%) ethnic groups.

Commenting on the figures, Huw Edwards, CEO of ukactive, said: “The latest figures are a reminder of the essential role gyms, pools and leisure centres are playing in driving children’s activity levels, with ukactive’s Next Generation strategy setting an ambition to reach one million more children through our members’ facilities by 2030.