Adults in Ashfield are less active than before Covid

Sport England said its Active Lives survey shows a strong recovery across England after Covid-19 impacted people’s exercise habits, but added a significant proportion of the population are still not meeting the recommended amount of activity.

The survey reveals 54.6 per cent of 524 respondents aged over 16 in Ashfield said they were active in the year to November 2022, exercising for more than two and a half hours a week, down from 59.5 per cent who said they were active pre-pandemic in 2018-19.

It is also a fall from 60.9 per cent in 2020-21, when Covid-19 heavily impacted activity levels.

A Local Government Association spokesman said councils have been working hard to prioritise public sport and leisure facilities, despite challenging financial positions.

He said: “It is positive to see adult activity levels bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels.

“However, we would like to see more done to ensure all parts of the community are being engaged with and stand ready work with the Government and partners to tackle inequalities in access to activities.”

Nationally, 63.1 per cent of the population met the Chief Medical Officer's guidelines of doing 150 minutes or more of physical activity a week. This is up from 61.4 per cent the year before and near 63.3 per cent recorded in 2018-19.

Nick Pontefract, Sport England chief strategy officer, said: “We can all still recall the impact the pandemic, and the restrictions that came with it, on our lives and for lots of us, on our activity levels. While we could get out for a walk or a bike ride, pretty much every other activity was impacted.

He said the recovery of adult activity levels is a testament to work done by the sport and physical activity sector, but added, despite the positive headline figure, there are worrying long-term trends that started before the pandemic.

He said: “Yes, 29.1 million people are meeting the Chief Medical Officer's guidelines of 150-plus minutes a week of activity, but at the same time there are 11.9m inactive people – 1.2 per cent more than before the pandemic.”

The figures show 31.3 per cent of adults in Ashfield said they were inactive, above the national average of 25.8 per cent. A further 14.1 per cent said they were fairly active, exercising 30-149 minutes a week.