Physical activity
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- 1. Navigate to Main facts and figures section
- 2. Navigate toBy ethnicity over time section
- 3. Navigate toBy ethnicity and gender section
- 4. Navigate toBy ethnicity and age group section
- 5. Navigate toBy ethnicity and area section
- 6. Navigate toBy ethnicity and socio-economic group section
- 7. Navigate to Methodology section
- 8. Navigate to Data sources section
- 9. Navigate to Download the data section
1. Main facts and figures
- from November 2018 to November 2019, 63.3% of people in England aged 16 and over were ‘physically active’ – they did 150 minutes or more of moderate intensity physical activity a week
- people of Mixed ethnicity were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to be physically active – this has remained consistent for the last 4 years
- people from the Asian ethnic group were less likely than average to be physically active – again, this has remained consistent for the last 4 years
- within the Black ethnic group, men were more likely to be active than women
- within the Asian and White British ethnic groups, men were more likely to be active than women
- although the figures show differences between men and women in other ethnic groups, sample sizes were too small to make reliable generalisations
Things you need to know
Sport England’s Active Lives Survey collects information from a random sample of the population to make generalisations about the total population.
The commentary for this data only refers to differences between groups where they are reliable ('statistically significant'). Findings are statistically significant when we are confident that they can be repeated, and reflect the total population rather than just the people who were surveyed. Read more about how we use confidence intervals to judge the reliability of data.
In some cases, charts and tables show a difference between ethnic groups, men and women, regions, or age groups, and no commentary is given. This is because it is not possible to say with confidence whether these differences are statistically significant.
Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.
You can download the data for figures from November 2015 to November 2019.
What the data measures
This data measures levels of physical activity for people aged 16 and over in England, by ethnicity.
Moderate activity is activity which raises your breathing rate. Vigorous activity is where you’re out of breath or are sweating. For measuring physical activity levels, 1 minute of vigorous activity is the equivalent of 2 minutes of moderate activity.
Data is recorded for 3 groups:
-
physically active – people who do 150 minutes or more a week
-
fairly active – people who do between 30 and 149 minutes a week
-
physically inactive – people who do less than 30 minutes a week
The physical activities covered in the survey include:
- sporting activities (team sports, racquet sports, swimming, bowls, fencing etc)
- fitness activities (gym session, fitness class, weights)
- cycling for sport and leisure
- cycling for travel
- walking for travel
- walking for leisure
- dance
The ethnic categories used in this data
Sports England used the following broad ethnic categories when analysing data from the Active Lives Survey:
- Asian
- Black
- Chinese
- Mixed
- White British
- White Other
- Other
2. By ethnicity over time
| Nov 2015 to Nov 2016 | Nov 2016 to Nov 2017 | Nov 2017 to Nov 2018 | Nov 2018 to Nov 2019 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | Nov 2015 to Nov 2016 % | Nov 2015 to Nov 2016 Number of Respondents | Nov 2016 to Nov 2017 % | Nov 2016 to Nov 2017 Number of Respondents | Nov 2017 to Nov 2018 % | Nov 2017 to Nov 2018 Number of Respondents | Nov 2018 to Nov 2019 % | Nov 2018 to Nov 2019 Number of Respondents |
| All | 62.1 | 198,911 | 61.8 | 196,635 | 62.7 | 179,747 | 63.3 | 181,535 |
| Asian | 55.6 | 7,984 | 54.0 | 8,240 | 56.3 | 6,719 | 53.9 | 7,304 |
| Black | 56.6 | 2,910 | 55.4 | 2,996 | 56.6 | 2,494 | 57.7 | 2,524 |
| Chinese | 56.1 | 1,057 | 56.3 | 1,061 | 64.4 | 891 | 61.0 | 983 |
| Mixed | 70.8 | 1,982 | 71.3 | 2,078 | 72.3 | 2,002 | 67.5 | 2,159 |
| White British | 62.8 | 167,292 | 62.9 | 163,434 | 63.6 | 149,985 | 64.6 | 151,336 |
| White other | 65.8 | 9,898 | 65.3 | 10,189 | 66.8 | 9,671 | 65.3 | 9,654 |
| Other | 56.8 | 1,500 | 56.6 | 1,475 | 56.4 | 1,275 | 60.9 | 1,312 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV)
Summary of Physical activity By ethnicity over time Summary
The data shows that in the year to November 2019:
- 63.3% of people aged 16 and over in England were physically active
- people with a Mixed ethnicity were most likely to be physically active out of all ethnic groups (67.5%), followed by people from the White Other ethnic group (65.3%) - this has remained consistent for the last 4 years
- the percentage of physically active people in the Asian, Black, Chinese and Other ethnic groups was lower than the national average, ranging from 53.9% to 61.0%
3. By ethnicity and gender
| All | Female | Male | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | All % | All Number of Respondents | Female % | Female Number of Respondents | Male % | Male Number of Respondents |
| All | 63.3 | 181,535 | 61.5 | 100,647 | 65.3 | 80,135 |
| Asian | 53.9 | 7,304 | 49.1 | 3,853 | 57.9 | 3,418 |
| Black | 57.7 | 2,524 | 52.9 | 1,502 | 63.8 | 1,007 |
| Chinese | 61.0 | 983 | 57.4 | 591 | 65.1 | 389 |
| Mixed | 67.5 | 2,159 | 65.0 | 1,355 | 71.3 | 787 |
| White British | 64.6 | 151,336 | 63.0 | 83,826 | 66.4 | 67,123 |
| White other | 65.3 | 9,654 | 65.5 | 5,722 | 65.0 | 3,887 |
| Other | 60.9 | 1,312 | 56.6 | 737 | 66.1 | 561 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and gender’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and gender’ (CSV)
Summary of Physical activity By ethnicity and gender Summary
The data shows that, in the year to November 2019:
- 65.3% of men and 61.5% of women were physically active
- in the White British and Asian ethnic groups, men were more likely to be physically active than women
- in the Black ethnic group, men were more likely to be active than women – sample sizes were too small to make reliable generalisations in other ethnic groups
- among men, those with a Mixed ethnicity were more likely than average to be physically active (71.3%) – men from the Asian ethnic group were less likely than average to be active (57.9%)
- among women, those in the White other ethnic group were most likely to be physically active (65.5%) – women from the Asian, Black, Chinese and Other ethnic groups were less likely than average to be active
4. By ethnicity and age group
| 16-24 | 25-34 | 35-44 | 45-54 | 55-64 | 65-74 | 75+ | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | 16-24 % | 16-24 Number of Respondents | 25-34 % | 25-34 Number of Respondents | 35-44 % | 35-44 Number of Respondents | 45-54 % | 45-54 Number of Respondents | 55-64 % | 55-64 Number of Respondents | 65-74 % | 65-74 Number of Respondents | 75+ % | 75+ Number of Respondents |
| All | 74.1 | 11,329 | 67.1 | 23,335 | 65.8 | 28,286 | 66.3 | 30,982 | 62.1 | 34,745 | 59.8 | 33,552 | 40.5 | 17,715 |
| Asian | 64.4 | 1,059 | 51.3 | 1,543 | 50.8 | 2,227 | 51.0 | 1,224 | 48.8 | 614 | 50.0 | 406 | 34.4 | 199 |
| Black | 64.9 | 340 | 54.0 | 408 | 57.8 | 596 | 63.7 | 550 | 52.5 | 373 | 44.1 | 146 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| Chinese | 71.8 | 145 | 64.9 | 262 | 46.7 | 230 | 58.4 | 146 | 49.7 | 107 | 60.0 | 59 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| Mixed | 72.3 | 427 | 68.0 | 545 | 64.0 | 488 | 66.7 | 342 | 62.5 | 220 | 46.2 | 84 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| White British | 77.9 | 8,148 | 70.5 | 17,321 | 70.3 | 20,697 | 68.1 | 25,860 | 63.0 | 31,010 | 60.4 | 30,927 | 40.9 | 16,324 |
| White other | 74.4 | 681 | 67.0 | 2,228 | 62.6 | 2,723 | 65.3 | 1,597 | 67.9 | 1,199 | 63.4 | 821 | 40.5 | 365 |
| Other | 68.6 | 132 | 66.3 | 226 | 57.7 | 323 | 56.7 | 255 | 57.9 | 190 | 55.6 | 122 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and age group’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and age group’ (CSV)
Summary of Physical activity By ethnicity and age group Summary
The data shows that:
- overall, people became less physically active the older they were – 74.1% of people aged 16 to 24 years were physically active, compared with 40.5% of people aged 75 years and over
- in all age groups between 16 and 74 years, people from the Asian ethnic group were less likely than average to be physically active
- in all age groups between 16 and 45 years, people from the Black ethnic group were less likely than average to be physically active
- in all age groups between 16 and 64 years, White British people were more likely than average to be physically active – the number of people surveyed for the Mixed, Other and White other ethnic groups in these age groups were too small to make reliable generalisations
5. By ethnicity and area
| All | Asian | Black | Chinese | Mixed | White British | White other | Other | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geography | All % | All Number of Respondents | Asian % | Asian Number of Respondents | Black % | Black Number of Respondents | Chinese % | Chinese Number of Respondents | Mixed % | Mixed Number of Respondents | White British % | White British Number of Respondents | White other % | White other Number of Respondents | Other % | Other Number of Respondents |
| East Midlands | 61.4 | 21,290 | 54.8 | 701 | 45.3 | 230 | 75.7 | 88 | 67.7 | 196 | 62.5 | 18,484 | 56.6 | 907 | 65.6 | 93 |
| East | 62.6 | 23,767 | 56.7 | 699 | 65.3 | 277 | 57.4 | 115 | 68.2 | 275 | 63.0 | 20,094 | 61.2 | 1,310 | 57.4 | 151 |
| London | 64.5 | 16,148 | 53.8 | 1,962 | 60.0 | 983 | 65.7 | 265 | 67.4 | 520 | 70.0 | 8,424 | 68.2 | 2,431 | 61.7 | 443 |
| North East | 60.7 | 7,535 | 52.3 | 168 | 79.0 | 54 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | 62.1 | 59 | 61.3 | 6,731 | 65.2 | 215 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| North West | 62.3 | 26,908 | 52.0 | 1,175 | 49.6 | 307 | 50.4 | 124 | 64.9 | 237 | 63.6 | 23,058 | 65.6 | 1,022 | 59.9 | 155 |
| South East | 65.9 | 33,262 | 58.5 | 1,051 | 56.1 | 287 | 56.5 | 148 | 74.4 | 380 | 66.7 | 28,183 | 67.0 | 1,905 | 59.0 | 210 |
| South West | 67.4 | 19,541 | 64.8 | 217 | 45.7 | 71 | 72.9 | 63 | 67.8 | 149 | 67.7 | 17,662 | 66.0 | 757 | 63.2 | 73 |
| West Midlands | 58.7 | 16,268 | 52.4 | 859 | 55.1 | 199 | 57.1 | 72 | 55.4 | 187 | 60.3 | 13,773 | 58.6 | 565 | 56.8 | 87 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 62.5 | 16,816 | 47.9 | 472 | 54.2 | 116 | 42.0 | 61 | 72.9 | 156 | 64.0 | 14,927 | 67.0 | 542 | 75.7 | 60 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and area’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and area’ (CSV)
Summary of Physical activity By ethnicity and area Summary
The data shows that:
- overall, rates of physical activity were highest in the South West (67.4%), the South East (65.9%) and London (64.5%) – they were lowest in the West Midlands (58.7%) and the North East (60.7%)
- people from a Mixed ethnic background were more likely to be physically active than average in the South East, and Yorkshire and the Humber
- in 7 regions (the East, the East Midlands, London, the North West, the South East, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the West Midlands), people from the Asian ethnic group were less likely to be physically active than the average for these regions
- in 5 regions (London, East Midlands, the North West, the South East and the South West) people from the Black ethnic group were less likely to be physically active than the average for these regions
6. By ethnicity and socio-economic group
| Managerial and professional occupations | Intermediate occupations and lower supervisory | Routine and manual occupations | Long term unemployed | Full-time student or unclassified | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | Managerial and professional occupations % | Managerial and professional occupations Number of Respondents | Intermediate occupations and lower supervisory % | Intermediate occupations and lower supervisory Number of Respondents | Routine and manual occupations % | Routine and manual occupations Number of Respondents | Long term unemployed % | Long term unemployed Number of Respondents | Full-time student or unclassified % | Full-time student or unclassified Number of Respondents |
| All | 72.0 | 89,414 | 62.6 | 41,050 | 55.6 | 16,627 | 48.0 | 3,599 | 71.3 | 11,878 |
| Asian | 59.1 | 3,630 | 47.1 | 1,241 | 47.2 | 700 | 42.0 | 508 | 62.6 | 1,000 |
| Black | 60.9 | 1,155 | 59.4 | 473 | 56.3 | 258 | 43.2 | 139 | 62.2 | 393 |
| Chinese | 64.1 | 569 | 54.4 | 133 | 38.7 | 65 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | 69.0 | 161 |
| Mixed | 74.1 | 1,162 | 59.2 | 371 | 54.6 | 184 | 45.5 | 84 | 73.5 | 307 |
| White British | 73.6 | 74,272 | 64.3 | 35,573 | 56.7 | 13,849 | 50.9 | 2,451 | 75.7 | 7,977 |
| White other | 72.4 | 5,467 | 60.2 | 1,993 | 54.7 | 959 | 61.1 | 149 | 75.1 | 689 |
| Other | 66.3 | 662 | 60.8 | 239 | 51.7 | 110 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | 69.8 | 173 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and socio-economic group’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and socio-economic group’ (CSV)
Summary of Physical activity By ethnicity and socio-economic group Summary
The data shows that:
- overall, rates of physical activity were highest for people in managerial and professional occupations (72.0%) and full-time students (71.3%) – they were lowest for long-term unemployed people (48.0%)
- in managerial and professional occupations, people from the White British ethnic group were more likely than average to be physically active (73.6%)
- in managerial and professional occupations, and intermediate and lower supervisory occupations, people from the Asian ethnic group were less likely to be physically active than people from the White British, White Other, Other and Mixed ethnic groups
7. Methodology
Up to 2 people per household take part in the Active Lives Survey.
The overall sample size is just under 200,000 people each year. The sample is randomly selected from a list of addresses in the UK maintained by the Royal Mail.
Weighting is used to adjust the results to make them representative of the population.
Data has been weighted to ONS population measures for geography and key demographics.
Suppression rules and disclosure control
Results based on fewer than 30 respondents are not published.
Rounding
Estimates in the charts and tables are given to the nearest whole number but all gaps and differences have been calculated on unrounded data.
You can download more detailed estimates (to 1 decimal place) if you download the data.
Related publications
Sporting Future - A New Strategy for an Active Nation.
Quality and methodology information
Further technical information
Active Lives Survey 2018/19 Year 4 Technical Note (PDF opens in a new window or tab) (PDF, 340KB, 13 pages)
8. Data sources
Source
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
Official statistics
Publisher
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Publication frequency
Twice a year
Purpose of data source
The Active Lives Survey measures the number of people aged 16 and over who take part in sport and physical activity.
This data informs the government’s strategy on physical activity, Sporting Future.
9. Download the data
This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, age group, socio-economic group, geography, sex, value, denominator, numerator, confidence intervals (upper bound, lower bound), number of respondents