Inequalities in sport and physical activity levels persist despite bounce back

Posted: Thu, 20 Apr 2023 17:49

Inequalities in sport and physical activity levels persist despite bounce back

Activity levels for adults in England increased last year and have bounced back to where they were before the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The figures, which we've published today, show that the overall number of people playing sport and getting active has recovered, after participation fell as a result of the restrictions designed to slow the spread of the virus.

Today's report shows that the scale of recovery also differs by deprivation level.

The least deprived places (IMD 8-10) have seen a full return to pre-pandemic activity levels, while mid-deprived places (IMD 4-7) have seen a partial recovery but remain 0.8% down. These places' activity levels are still above where they were in November 2015-16 (up 1.0%) when we started the survey.

However, the most deprived places (IMD 1-3) have fared far worse, with activity levels remaining below both pre-pandemic (down 3.1%) and November 2015-16 levels (down 2.6%).

Expanding our place-based working by collaborating with more places on their local priorities and partnership opportunities, and helping them use sport and physical activity to deliver the outcomes they want and their communities need, is a key part of our Uniting the Movement strategy and we'll be focussing our efforts in the most deprived places where we can make the biggest impact.

Download the report

Click on the link below to read our report – if embedded links in the PDF do not function correctly in Google Chrome, please use another browser, or open the report in a dedicated PDF viewer:

Active Lives Adult Survey November 2021-22 ReportDownload the file - 4.37 MB

Tags: DCMS, Featured, Health, Physical Activity, Sport, participation, sport england, sport policy