Since Covid, children have become increasingly sedentary during the week even though overall levels of physical activity have finally returned to pre-pandemic levels.
A study (Jago et al, 2023) led by the University of Bristol finds that by summer 2022, 41% of children aged 10 and 11 were meeting the national recommended guidelines of 60 minutes of physical activity a day.
However, while this is an improvement on the immediate post-Covid levels, it still means that the majority of children are falling short.
The findings are similiar to Sport England research in December, which concluded that only 47% of children aged 5 to 16 meet the 60 minute guideline, with a further 23% completing 30 to 59 minutes a day (Sport England, 2022).
