Sport and coronavirus: More adults inactive as inequality gap widens - Sport England

More than one million English adults have continued to be inactive since the coronavirus pandemic with Sport England warning inequalities are deepening.

There were 1.3m inactive adults between November 2020 and November 2021, says Sport England's Active Lives Adult report.

That's an increase of 2.6% from the previous report last year.

Levels of sporting activity among adults aged 16-34 and people from less affluent groups have continued to drop.

However, the total number of active adults has stabilised since restrictions eased.

The data shows 61.4% of English adults (28m) - the same as figure as last year's data - are classed as active, which means doing more than 150 minutes of exercise each week.

But the study also shows the pandemic has widened the gap between the richest and poorest in society.

Activity levels have fallen by 4.4% among those living in the most deprived areas of England, with the most affluent areas seeing a drop of 1.2%.

The data also shows there continues to be significant inequality across socio-economic groups, disability and ethnicity.

Those in routine/semi-routine jobs, and those who are long-term unemployed or have never worked, are the least likely to be active (52%) compared to those in the top socio-economic groups (71%)

Disabled people are less likely to be active (45%) than someone without a disability (66%), while only 50% of people of non-Chinese Asian ethnicity are active compared to 63% of people described as white British.

"Today's Active Lives report shows how activity levels are starting to recover. That's testament to the dedication of all of those who worked so hard to bring activities back safely when restrictions started to be eased," said Sport England chief executive Tim Hollingsworth.

"Though this report clearly sets out the many challenges that lie ahead in supporting people to play more sport and lead more active lives, the key investments and resources we were able to provide during the harshest of restrictions also played an important role in helping sports get back on their feet."

Hollingsworth said the data was "not a surprise", adding Sport England's Uniting the Movement strategy was focusing on providing resources and funding to address the inequalities.

The strategy included an extra £50m being directed towards grassroots sport after the "significant hit" to activity levels amid the coronavirus pandemic.