Sport England: Record numbers playing sport and taking part in physical activity

The number of people playing sport and taking part in physical activity in England is at the highest level on record, according to our latest Active Lives Adult Survey Report, which we’ve published today. 

The new figures show that, between November 2023 and November 2024, 63.7% of the adult population met the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of doing 150 minutes, or more, of moderate intensity physical activity a week.

That’s equivalent to 30 million adults in England playing sport or taking part in physical activity every week – up more than 2.4m from when we first published the survey results in 2016.

The number of inactive adults, those doing less than 30 minutes of activity a week, is down, with this number falling by 121,000 in the last 12 months. 

This reflects significant progress, especially considering the huge disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and is testament to the hard work of many organisations across the sport and physical activity sector. 

You can join an online briefing via Teams on Thursday 22 May, from 2-3pm, to learn more about the release and how it relates to our collective work in Uniting the Movement.

Colleagues from our insight team will provide a detailed analysis of the results and you'll have the chance to ask any questions about them. 

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