Inactivity Levels at All Time Low for Adults

Sport England's Adult Active Lives survey measures the number of people taking part in sport and physical activity for people aged 16+ over the period of November 2023-24. Our Insight Partner, Press Red, have completed an analysis of results for Hertfordshire providing some additional context to demographic and economic shifts that may be impacting activity levels.

The report indicates some key successes and also provides further support for our work to tackle inequalities that make being active more challenging. The first figures referenced are activity and inactivity levels - this refers to those that do more than 150 minutes of moderate activity or less than 30 minutes respectively. Currently 67% are active and 20.8% are inactive, the remaining people sit within fairly active and these people do between 30-150 minutes of moderate activity.

A breakdown of those who are inactive shows that 12% of Hertfordshire population currently do no activity at all and this is a significant area of our focus, as moving these people to do some activity has a significant impact on health and wellbeing outcomes. The data continues to evidence that certain populations are more likely to be inactive:

• Our least affluent households are twice as likely to be inactive compared to most affluent households.
• Similarly, people with a disability or limiting illness are also twice as likely to be inactive compared to those without.
• Nearly a quarter (23.5%) of people with a disability do no activity and research from the Activity Alliance suggests that if we can move these people to doing some activity it can be worth up to £4,400 of social value per person [1]. 

To see the full report and further insight please see link below, if you have any questions about insight please contact Chris Samways - MELII Officer (c.samways@herts.ac.uk) 

Active Live - Adult 23-24 Insight Report

Insight Page