Your web browser is out of date. Update your browser for the best experience on this site, additional security, and speed.

Update browser

More than 40% of children and young people lead active lives

More than 40% of children in England do an average of more than 60 minutes of physical activity a day.

Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey shows that around 3 million children (43.3%) lead active lives, however of that group, only 1.2 million (17.5%) are meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines of more than 60 minutes of activity a day, every day of the week.

The survey is the largest ever of its kind and gives comprehensive insight into how children in England are taking part in sport and physical activity, both in and out of school. Figures also show that more than 2.3 million children and young people (32.9%) are less active, meaning they do fewer than 30 minutes of physical activity a day.

A further 1.7 million (23.9%) are fairly active, doing between 30 and 59 minutes of physical activity a day. The report is based on responses from more than 130,000 children aged 5-16 in England during the academic year September 2017-July 2018. And results show some significant inequalities in activity levels, based on family income. In total, 39% of children in the least affluent families do fewer than 30 minutes of activity a day, compared to 26% of children from the most affluent families.