Fewer than half of children are meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of taking part in an average of 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity a day.
According to Sport England’s latest Active Lives Children and Young People survey, almost 4 million children are still not physically active for at least 60 minutes each day, with activity levels in children remaining unchanged compared to 2021-22.
The Chief Medical Officers recommend, across the week, children and young people do an average of 60-plus minutes of at least moderate intensity activity a day. This effectively means they need to do at least 420 moderate minutes a week to meet the guidelines, says Sports England.
A breakdown of the survey findings for five-to-seven-year-olds reveal:
- Perceived competence (finds sport easy) has fallen compared to five years ago for children in school years 1-2.
- The number that enjoy sport and being active has remain unchanged.
