Children’s activity levels remain stable according to Active Lives Survey 2023-24

The Active Lives Children and Young People Survey is a yearly report produced by Sport England, which provides crucial insight into activity levels in children and young people aged 5-16 in England. It also explores how children and young people feel about physical activity, and highlights any prominent or emerging inequalities.

The latest report summarises the physical activity behaviours over the 2023-2024 academic year (September 2023-July 2024). These reports then inform decisions such as those made in Sport England’s 10 year strategy Uniting The Movement, so that they may focus on groups who are at the biggest risk of inactivity.

This year’s survey shows us that less than
half of children and young people are doing
an average of 60 minutes of activity or
more each day – the level recommended
by the Chief Medical Officers.

Whilst activity levels have stabilised, it shows the long-term impact of Coronavirus on children and young people’s relationships with physical activity. For example:

• Children in years 3-8 (who would have been aged 4-9 during the pandemic) remain less likely to have positive attitudes towards physical activity
• Happiness scores are also down in these years
• Those in year 7 are less like to be able to swim 25 metres unaided than older children could at their age. (7% less)

There were also clear demographic differences when it came to recording participation levels in sport and physical activity:

• Black (42%) 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

“This year’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey shows us that 47.8% of children and young people are doing an average of 60 minutes of activity or more every day. That’s the level recommended by the Chief Medical Officer.

Whilst this is an improvement on the position seen when our survey first began, results have stabilised in recent years. We want to see these numbers grow.”

Nick Pontefract, Chief Strategy Officer

“Sport is essential in allowing children and young people to develop healthy and positive attitudes for life.

“Today’s data shows that there is more work to do. This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity to ensure that every young person can lead a healthy and active life.”

Stephanie Peacock MP, Sports Minister

We are firm believers that developing positive early attitudes to sport and physical activity are crucial to developing healthy attitudes and improving their outcomes.

With this in mind, our work with the Active Lives Survey aligns perfectly with what we are aiming to achieve. We have worked hard over the past few years to improve the response rate of local schools, so as to get a better idea of the attitudes to physical activity and sport within the children and young people of Norfolk.

Each year we set out to reach more and more schools to gather wider responses from pupils across years 1 to 11 to learn more about their activity levels but also what the children & young people are telling us they’d like to see more of within their community. Whilst there is still work to be done, we have seen a huge improvement in the survey response rates across the majority of Norfolk districts, meaning we can get a better idea of the activity levels in those areas.

Our work going forward is focussed on improving these figures further so as to be able to acquire data on all of Norfolk and see where we can improve.

Rebecca Elliott, Active Norfolk

Each term, Sport England provide Active Norfolk with a random sample of schools that have been selected to take part in the Active Lives Survey. Responses are collected to measure the attitudes of teachers within the school, and parents of children from younger years.

45 schools participated in the survey of 2023-24 contributing to the highest response rate across the 7 completed years of the survey and additionally, the national picture. Schools participation in the survey provides in-depth analysis and additionally supports the wider funding picture within the community. This local data will be released in the new year.

The work with the Active Lives Survey is a crucial part of what we do. Our Children and Young People team work closely with schools to gather this data so that they may get a useful insight as to the activity levels within their school. We then work with schools to identify areas they can build upon, so as to improve their overall physical activity offering.

To find out more about the work we do with the Active Lives Survey and see how you can take part, visit our Active Lives Survey page.