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The latest national results from the Active Lives Children and Young People Survey show that children and young people’s overall activity levels are stable as the initial recovery from the pandemic was maintained across the 2022-23 academic year.
The survey shows 47% of children are meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of taking part in an average of 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity a day.
Published by Sport England, the figures are in line with the 2018-2019 academic year, the last full year before the pandemic, and higher than in 2017-18 when the survey launched.
However participation in sport and physical activity varies greatly, and a child or young person’s gender, ethnicity and age all impact how likely they are to be physically active.
Significant inequalities remain in activity levels, with Black (40%) and Asian (40%) children and young people, and those from the least affluent families (44%), still less likely to play sport 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%).
Activity levels change as children get older. They are highest for those in Years 1-2, ages 5-6 (51%) and lowest for those in Years 3-4, ages 7-9 (40%).
The figures also show there are 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), as increases in active travel during the pandemic have been maintained since society returned to normal.
However the number of children doing no activity at all in the previous seven days has increased with 127,000 more children (1.4%) falling into this category compared to 2017-18, meaning there are now more than 600,000 children in England doing no activity at all.
To read the full Sport England report click here.
An analysis of the local data is now also available here.
