Sport England’s Active Lives Survey

Sport England is responsible for promoting and investing in sport in the UK. They help the government meet its sporting objectives in this country and distribute Lottery funds to sport. Their vision is to make England a more active and successful sporting nation.

They are in charge of releasing the Active Lives surveys which measure activity levels across England in both adults and children. You can read these below.

---

Latest adult Active Lives Survey report

Sport England’s Active Lives Adult Survey is a study of activity levels among adults in England. It gives us a better understanding of people’s behaviour in relation to physical activity.

It is conducted to provide decision makers, government departments, local authorities and the sport and physical activity sector with a better understanding of people’s sport and physical activity habits.

The latest survey covers the period between November 2021 – 2022. Take a look at the full report below or click here to visit the Active Lives site for more information.

What does the latest report show?

Main takeaways:

• Activity levels for adults have increased and are now back to where they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Between November 2021 – November 2022, 63.1% (29.1 million) of the population were doing 150 minutes or more of physical activity a week. This is up 1.7% from the previous year.
• The number of inactive people has fallen by 1.4% and is now back in line with where they were in 2015-2016.
• Age continues to be a major factor that determines how likely a person is to be physically active. The older a person is, the less likely they are to meet the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines. However, this masks some long-term trends and, despite a significant recovery over the last year, there are now nearly half a million fewer active young people (aged 16-34) than six years ago.
• There are now 3.8% more adults with a disability or long-term health condition who are active, compared to November 2015-2016.

For a full breakdown of the latest report, click here. Alternatively, if you’re looking for the results specifically for areas in Norfolk, you can click here to view our locality insight page.

Small Area Estimates of Inactivity

The Active Lives Survey provides us with twice yearly figures for inactivity down to a local authority level (Breckland, Norwich, North Norfolk etc.) This data is modelled by Sport England to give estimates of inactivity in smaller areas. The latest version of this data is available here and can be viewed as a map or table as well as being exportable.

---

Previous adult Active Lives Surveys

---

Latest Children Active Lives Survey Reports

Sport England have sought to explore and better understand not only the behaviours of children and young people, but also their attitudes towards sport and physical activity.

They also explore the extent to which being active links to health. This includes levels of mental wellbeing and individual development, as well as social and community development.

For more information, including a breakdown of the following reports, visit our Children’s Active Lives Survey page.

---

Useful tools and documents

The following interactive tools will also help you to carry out further research. They can also help you to delve deeper into data provided by Sport England.

The Active People Interactive tool is a unique and valuable resources. It helps to unlock the potential of ALS data, allowing you to create your own tailored analysis.

The Local Sport Profile is another useful tool. It provides councils with a profile of up-to-date data for their local area. The tool also covers sports participation, facilities, health, economic and demographics, all in one place. 

Below this, you’ll also find a report covering the social and economic value of community sports.

---

Sport England Strategy: Uniting the Movement

In January 2021 Sport England launched their 10-year strategy, Uniting the Movement.

Today, there is overwhelming evidence to show that moving our bodies through community sport, fitness and any other physical activity improves our lives, individually and collectively.

Sport England’s goal is to champion this life-changing impact and ensure that everyone across the nation can benefit from it.

You can find more about the new strategy and how it will be achieved here. You can also watch a summary in the video below.