ONE MILLION MORE ACTIVE IN ENGLAND 

The highest ever levels of activity have been recorded by our latest Active Lives Adult Survey, with 1 million more people physically active than when the survey began.

Based on data gathered from 180,000 respondents (aged 16+) in the 12 months from May 2018 to May 2019, 1,015,700 more people are active compared to when the survey started, in 2015.

That takes the total number of active people – those doing at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week – up to 28.6 million.

The number of inactive people – doing fewer than 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week – is down to 11.2 million, a decrease of 131,700 since 2015 and the lowest figure ever recorded by the survey.

The results show that this improvement has been driven by women and older adults (aged 55+) – groups that Sport England focused on, in their Towards an Active Nation strategy, with campaigns such at This Girl CanOpen in a new window, a £10 million fund for projects that support people aged 55+ to get active and by supporting new opportunities for running such as our £3 million investment into parkrun.