Active People Survey 1 - headline results

England results in brief:

21% of the adult population (8.5 million people) take part regularly in sport and active recreation. Regular participation in sport and recreation is defined as taking part on at least 3 days a week in moderate intensity sport and active recreation (at least 12 days in the last 4 weeks) for at least 30 minutes continuously in any one session.

Regionally, regular participation ranged from a high of 22.6% in the South East region to a low of 19.3% in the West Midlands.

Walking is the most popular recreational activity for people in England. Over 8 million adults aged 16 and over (20%) did a recreational walk for at least 30 minutes in the last 4 weeks. 5.6 million people (13.8%) swim at least once a month while 4.2 million people (10.5%) go to the gym.

Over 2.7 million people put some voluntary time into sport – with an estimated 1.8 million hours unpaid support every week of the year. This equates to over 54,000 full time equivalent jobs.

4.7% of the adult population (1.9 million) contribute at least one hour a week volunteering to sport.

25.1% of the adult population (10.2 million) are members of a club where they take part in sport - an increase from 17% in 2002.

Regular participation in sport and active recreation varies across different socio-demographic groups – for example, male participation is 23.7%; and female participation is 18.5%.

Factsheets

Headline results are presented as a series of 'factsheets' - to view the national factsheet (results for England as a whole) click here

To view the national results in map form click here

To view headline results for the nine English regions, click below:

To view sports specific headline results, click here.

Using Active People Survey 1 data, a series of evidence packs or 'sport facts' have been published. These provide detail around participation by sport and the profile of sport participants. More.