The Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, which was established in September 2017, provides a world-leading approach to gathering data on how children engage with sport and physical activity. This school-based survey is the first and largest established physical activity survey with children and young people in England. It gives anyone working with children aged 5-16 key insight to help understand children's attitudes and behaviours around sport and physical activity. The results will shape and influence local decision-making as well as inform government policy on the PE and Sport Premium, Childhood Obesity Plan and other cross-departmental programmes. More general information about the study can be found on the Sport England Active Lives Survey webpage and the Active Lives Online website, including reports and data tables.

Due to the closure of school sites during the coronavirus pandemic, the Active Lives Children and Young People survey was adapted to allow at-home completion. This approach was retained into the academic year 2022-23 to help maximise response numbers. The at-home completion approach was actively offered for secondary school pupils, and allowed but not encouraged for primary pupils.

The adaptions involved minor questionnaire changes (e.g., to ensure the wording was appropriate for those not attending school and enabling completion at home) and communication changes. For further details on the survey changes, please see the accompanying User Guide document. Academic years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 saw a more even split of responses by term across the year, compared to 2019-20, which had a reduced proportion of summer term responses due to the disruption caused by Covid-19.

The survey identifies how participation varies across different activities and sports, by regions of England, between school types and terms, and between different demographic groups in the population. The survey measures levels of activity (active, fairly active and less active), attitudes towards sport and physical activity, swimming capability, the proportion of children and young people that volunteer in sport, sports spectating, and wellbeing measures such as happiness and life satisfaction. The questionnaire was designed to enable analysis of the findings by a broad range of variables, such as gender, family affluence and school year.

The following datasets have been provided:

1) Main dataset: this file includes responses from children and young people from school years 3 to 11, as well as responses from parents of children in years 1-2. The parents of children in years 1-2 provide behavioural answers about their child’s activity levels; they do not provide attitudinal information. Using this main dataset, full analyses can be carried out into sports and physical activity participation, levels of activity, volunteering (years 5 to 11), etc. Weighting is required when using this dataset (wt_gross / wt_gross - Csplan files are available for SPSS users who can utilise them).

2) Year 1-2 dataset: This file includes responses directly from children in school years 1-2, providing their attitudinal responses (e.g., whether they like playing sport and find it easy). Analysis can also be carried out into feelings towards swimming, enjoyment of being active, happiness, etc. Weighting is required when using this dataset (wt_gross / wt_gross - Csplan files are available for SPSS users who can utilise them).

3) Teacher dataset: This file includes responses from the teachers at schools selected for the survey. Analysis can be carried out to determine school facilities available, the length of PE lessons, whether swimming lessons are offered, etc. Since December 2023, Sport England has provided weighting for the teacher data (‘wt_teacher’ weighting variable).

For further information, please read the supporting documentation before using the datasets.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, which was established in September 2017, provides a world-leading approach to gathering data on how children engage with sport and physical activity. This school-based survey is the first and largest established physical activity survey with children and young people in England. It gives anyone working with children aged 5-16 key insight to help understand children's attitudes and behaviours around sport and physical activity. The results will shape and influence local decision-making as well as inform government policy on the PE and Sport Premium, Childhood Obesity Plan and other cross-departmental programmes. More general information about the study can be found on the Sport England Active Lives Survey webpage and the Active Lives Online website, including reports and data tables.

The Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, 2017-2018 commenced during school academic year 2017 / 2018. It ran from autumn term 2017 to summer term 2018 and excludes school holidays. The survey identifies how participation varies across different activities and sports, by regions of England, between school types and terms, and between different demographic groups in the population. The survey measures levels of activity (active, fairly active and less active), attitudes towards sport and physical activity, swimming capability, the proportion of children and young people that volunteer in sport, sports spectating, and wellbeing measures such as happiness and life satisfaction. The questionnaire was designed to enable analysis of the findings by a broad range of variables, such as gender, family affluence and school year.

The following datasets are available:

1) Main dataset includes responses from children and young people from school years 3 to 11, as well as responses from parents of children in years 1-2. The parents of children in years 1-2 provide behavioural answers about their child's activity levels, they do not provide attitudinal information. Using this main dataset, full analyses can be carried out into sports and physical activity participation, levels of activity, volunteering (years 5 to 11), etc. Weighting is required when using this dataset (wt_gross / wt_set1.csplan).

2) Year 1-2 pupil dataset includes responses from children in school years 1-2 directly, providing their attitudinal responses (e.g. whether they like playing sport and find it easy). Analysis can be carried out into feelings towards swimming, enjoyment for being active, happiness etc. Weighting is required when using this dataset (wt_gross / wt_set1.csplan).

3) Teacher dataset includes responses from the teachers at schools selected for the survey. Analysis can be carried out into school facilities available, length of PE lessons, whether swimming lessons are offered, etc. Weighting was formerly not available, however, as Sport England have started to publish the Teacher data, from December 2023 we decide to apply weighting to the data. The Teacher dataset now includes weighting by applying the ‘wt_teacher’ weighting variable.

For further information about the variables available for analysis, and the relevant school years asked survey questions, please see the supporting documentation. Please read the documentation before using the datasets.

Latest edition information

For the second edition (January 2024), the Teacher dataset now includes a weighting variable (‘wt_teacher’). Previously, weighting was not available for these data.

Main Topics:

Topics covered in the Active Lives Children and Young People Survey include:

• Sport and physical activity participation
• Well-being
• Health

The Active People Survey commenced in October 2005 and was commissioned by Sports England. The primary objective of the survey was to measure levels of participation in sport and active recreation and its contribution to improving the health of the nation. Sport and active recreation included walking and cycling for recreation in addition to more traditional formal and informal spots. When measuring sports participation the survey not only recorded the type of activity but also the frequency, intensity and duration of the activity.

The Active People Survey was replaced by the Active Lives Survey in November 2015. Active Lives is a new survey with a different methodology and intended to measure different outcomes from those in the Active People Survey, however there are similarities as it was important that data could be reproduced on some of the key measures.

More general information can be found on the Sport England Active Lives Survey webpage and the Active Lives Online website, including reports and data tables.


Variables no longer available on the Active People Survey
A number of questions were dropped from the Active People Survey for the last six months of its lifespan, due to dual running with the new Active Lives Survey. So, there is no data available for them in the APS10 dataset. The questions dropped covered:

• Reasons for participation;
• Sport provision;
• Change in participation;
• Likelihood to do more sport;
• Gender identity;
• Sexual identity;
• Volunteering by individual sport.

Some other variables are also unavailable, for example D14B (How is your health in general?) and D14ar (Overall how satisfied is your life nowadays?), but may still be referenced in the documentation.

% of physically active and inactive adults - active adults. The provider of data for this indicator is Public Health England based on Active Lives (self-report survey) and Sport England. This indicator measures the number of respondents aged 19 and over, with valid responses to questions on physical activity, doing at least 150 moderate intensity equivalent (MIE) minutes physical activity per week in bouts of 10 minutes or more in the previous 28 days expressed as a percentage of the total number of respondents aged 19 and over. *This indicator has been discontinued

Physical inactivity within an ageing population is an ongoing public health concern for policymakers. Engagement in sport forms a foundation of policy designed to encourage physical activity participation and improve health and wellbeing. This study aimed to (i) understand the extent to which older adults participate in sport and the (ii) correlates that predict this involvement within an English population sample of older adults. A further aim was (iii) to examine the extent in which sports participation may vary due to the opportunity provided across Active Partnerships in England. To address this, a multi-level analysis framed through COM-B was conducted of the 2021 English Active Lives dataset (i.e., during the COVID-19 pandemic). The Active Lives survey provides population-level insight into sport, exercise, and physical activity participation across England. It samples upwards of n = 180,000 participants beyond the age of 16 years and asks questions on factors that influence participation. Our findings drawn from a sample of n = 68,808 older adults (i.e., >60-years of age) indicate that when accounting for variation across regions sports participation was significantly predicted by age (β = -.246, p = .040) and multiple deprivation (β  = .706, p = .030). Further, our analysis suggests sports participation across regions is associated with changes in the perceptions of opportunity to participate (β = -28.70, p = .001). As the UK transitions from the COVID-19 pandemic, findings have implications for the promotion of sports participation for older adults, in that local, regional, and national stakeholders must do more to change perceptions of social and physical opportunity within an ageing population. This may be achieved through adaptations to the recreational sporting landscape, raising awareness, and supportive policy changes on a national level.

SUMMARYTo be viewed in combination with the ‘Levels of obesity, inactivity and associated illnesses: Summary (England)’ dataset.This dataset shows where there was no data* relating to one of more of the following factors:Obesity/inactivity-related illnesses (recorded at the GP practice catchment area level*)Adult obesity (recorded at the GP practice catchment area level*)Inactivity in children (recorded at the district level)Excess weight in children (recorded at the Middle Layer Super Output Area level)* GPs do not have catchments that are mutually exclusive from each other: they overlap, with some geographic areas being covered by 30+ practices.GP data for the financial year 1st April 2018 – 31st March 2019 was used in preference to data for the financial year 1st April 2019 – 31st March 2020, as the onset of the COVID19 pandemic during the latter year could have affected the reporting of medical statistics by GPs. However, for 53 GPs (out of 7670) that did not submit data in 2018/19, data from 2019/20 was used instead. This dataset identifies areas where data from 2019/20 was used, where one or more GPs did not submit data in either year (this could be because there are rural areas that aren’t officially covered by any GP practices), or where there were large discrepancies between the 2018/19 and 2019/20 data (differences in statistics that were > mean +/- 1 St.Dev.), which suggests erroneous data in one of those years (it was not feasible for this study to investigate this further), and thus where data should be interpreted with caution.Results of the ‘Levels of obesity, inactivity and associated illnesses: Summary (England)’ analysis in these areas should be interpreted with caution, particularly if the levels of obesity, inactivity and associated illnesses appear to be significantly lower than in their immediate surrounding areas.Really small areas with ‘missing’ data were deleted, where it was deemed that missing data will not have impacted the overall analysis (i.e. where GP data was missing from really small countryside areas where no people live).See also Health and wellbeing statistics (GP-level, England): Missing data and potential outliers dataDATA SOURCESThis dataset was produced using:- Quality and Outcomes Framework data: Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital.- National Child Measurement Programme: Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital. - Active Lives Survey 2019: Sport and Physical Activity Levels amongst children and young people in school years 1-11 (aged 5-16). © Sport England 2020.- Active Lives Survey 2019: Sport and Physical Activity Levels amongst adults aged 16+. © Sport England 2020.- GP Catchment Outlines. Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital. Data was cleaned by Ribble Rivers Trust before use.- Administrative boundaries: Boundary-LineTM: Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.- MSOA boundaries: © Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2021.COPYRIGHT NOTICEThe reproduction of this data must be accompanied by the following statement:© Ribble Rivers Trust 2021. Analysis carried out using data that is: Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital; © Sport England 2020; © Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.CaBA HEALTH & WELLBEING EVIDENCE BASEThis dataset forms part of the wider CaBA Health and Wellbeing Evidence Base.

The Active Lives Survey (ALS) commenced in November 2015. It replaces the Active People Survey, which ran from 2005 to 2015. The survey provides the largest sample size ever established for a sport and recreation survey and allows levels of detailed analysis previously unavailable. It identifies how participation varies from place to place, across different sports, and between different groups in the population. The survey also measures levels of activity (active, fairly active and inactive), the proportion of the adult population that volunteer in sports on a weekly basis, club membership, sports spectating and wellbeing measures such as happiness and anxiety, etc. The questionnaire was designed to enable analysis of the findings by a broad range of demographic information, such as gender, social class, ethnicity, household structure, age, and disability.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic developed rapidly during 2020 and 2021. Fieldwork for the Active Lives survey continued throughout the pandemic, which covered periods Nov 2019-20 and Nov 2020-21. The data from Nov 2021-22 onwards covers periods without any coronavirus restrictions.

More general information about the study can be found on the Sport England Active Lives Survey webpage and the Active Lives Online website, including reports and data tables.

Data Formats
Users should note that the Active Lives data are deposited in SPSS format. The UKDS also provides the data in Stata and tab-delimited formats, but due to the differing nature of the SPSS and Stata software packages and the structure of the Active Lives data, Stata users may experience some issues with labels or variable formats. We therefore recommend that users analyse the data in SPSS where possible.

This is the proportion of adults who do any walking or cycling, for any purpose at least once per week.

Sources:

National Travel Survey (NTS): A household survey of personal travel by residents of England travelling within Great Britain. Data is collected via interviews and a one-week travel diary. Active Lives Survey (ALS): An annual survey of adults carried out by Sport England. Data is collected via a push-to-web survey.

Definitions:

Walking: Any continuous walk of over 10 minutes, irrespective of purpose. Cycling: Any cycling, irrespective of length or purpose. Leisure Cycling: Cycling for the purpose of health, recreation, training or competition, not to get from place to place. Travel Cycling: Cycling to get from place-to-place, e.g., commuting, visiting a friend, or going to the supermarket.

Note: Results are grouped according to the area where respondents live, which may not be the same as the area where they walk or cycle.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

This is the estimated percentage of adults aged 16 and over in the local area who are active. These estimates include the activities of walking, cycling, dance, fitness and sporting activities, but exclude gardening which is outside of Sport England's remit. Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) publish physical activity data for adults aged 19+ that includes gardening. Activity is counted in moderate intensity equivalent minutes whereby each 'moderate' minute counts as one minute and each 'vigorous' minute counts as two moderate minutes. Depending on the number of minutes of moderate intensity equivalent (MIE) physical activity, people are described as being:

Inactive - Doing less than 30 minutes a week Fairly Active - Doing 30-149 minutes a week Active - Doing at least 150 minutes a week

Moderate activity is defined as where you raise your heart rate and feel a little out of breath. Vigorous activity is where you are breathing hard and fast and your heart rate has increased significantly (you will not be able to say more than a few words without pausing for breath). When making comparisons between figures, some differences seen may not be significant differences and so a degree of caution should be made before making conclusions. The survey was adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey sample is randomly selected from the Royal Mail’s Postal Address File ensuring a very high coverage of private residential addresses. The target sample size for each English local authority (excluding the City of London and Isles of Scilly) is 500 returns. Data may be suppressed for an area where the threshold of 30 is not reached. Population totals are created using Office for National Statistics (ONS) mid-year population estimates. Data is sourced from the adult Active Lives November to November survey.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

Proportion of the population who, when surveyed, reported that they had eaten the recommended 5 portions of fruit and vegetables on a usual day. This is the weighted number of respondents aged 16 and over, with valid responses to the question 'How many portions of fruit and vegetables did you eat yesterday?', eating at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables in the previous day.

All analyses for this indicator have been weighted to be representative of the population of England. These indicators use data from the Sport England Active Lives (AL) survey. These indicators were not intended to be, and should not be, compared directly with other sources of diet data. The AL questions are more simplistic than those used in other sources e.g., National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) or Health Survey for England (HSE). Estimates from the different surveys are not directly comparable as the data collection methodologies are different.

For the HSE, participants are asked numerous questions, including separate questions about fruits, vegetables, and pulses, and portion sizes. For the NDNS, data are collected using food diaries. Foods are then broken down to their component parts and fruit and vegetable portions are calculated. The method used in AL enables responses from a very large sample to be collected which means we can present data for each local authority which cannot be done using other sources.

The main purpose of the data set used for the PHOF indicators is to enable comparisons between areas and to measure progress. Latest update presents data from Active Lives for the period mid-November to mid-November. The current estimates (2020 to 2021 onwards) are not comparable with the previous estimates (between 2015 to 2016 and 2019 to 2020) as the current estimates are consistently around 20 percentage points lower than the previous estimates. Although the estimates of those meeting the ‘5-a-day’ fruit and vegetable consumption recommendations are significantly lower from the single question, the ranking order across local authorities or inequality groups is similar.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

This is the estimated percentage of adults aged 16 and over in the local area taking part in sport and physical activity at least twice in the last month. This is measured as the equivalent of 30 minutes or more activity at least twice in the last 28 days. Each session must last at least 10 minutes and be of at least moderate intensity. An individual can reach the minimum threshold by a combination of two 30-minutes sessions across the last 28 days or by six 10-minute sessions, for example. This is measured for all activities including sports, fitness, dance, cycling and walking (including for travel). Activities done by those aged 65 and over were assumed to be at least moderate in all cases. Moderate activity is defined as where you raise your heart rate and feel a little out of breath. Vigorous activity is where you are breathing hard and fast and your heart rate has increased significantly (you will not be able to say more than a few words without pausing for breath). When making comparisons between figures, some differences seen may not be significant differences and so a degree of caution should be made before making conclusions. The survey was adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey sample is randomly selected from the Royal Mail’s Postal Address File ensuring a very high coverage of private residential addresses. The target sample size for each English local authority (excluding the City of London and Isles of Scilly) is 500 returns. Data may be suppressed for an area where the threshold of 30 is not reached. Population totals are created using Office for National Statistics (ONS) mid-year population estimates. Data is sourced from the adult Active Lives November to November survey.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

The Active Lives Survey (ALS) commenced in November 2015. It replaces the Active People Survey, which ran from 2005 to 2015. The survey provides the largest sample size ever established for a sport and recreation survey and allows levels of detailed analysis previously unavailable. It identifies how participation varies from place to place, across different sports, and between different groups in the population. The survey also measures levels of activity (active, fairly active and inactive), the proportion of the adult population that volunteer in sports on a weekly basis, club membership, sports spectating and wellbeing measures such as happiness and anxiety, etc. The questionnaire was designed to enable analysis of the findings by a broad range of demographic information, such as gender, social class, ethnicity, household structure, age, and disability.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic developed rapidly during 2020 and 2021. Fieldwork for the Active Lives survey continued throughout the pandemic, which covered periods Nov 2019-20 and Nov 2020-21. The data from Nov 2021-22 onwards covers periods without any coronavirus restrictions.

More general information about the study can be found on the Sport England Active Lives Survey webpage and the Active Lives Online website, including reports and data tables.

Data Formats
Users should note that the Active Lives data are deposited in SPSS format. The UKDS also provides the data in Stata and tab-delimited formats, but due to the differing nature of the SPSS and Stata software packages and the structure of the Active Lives data, Stata users may experience some issues with labels or variable formats. We therefore recommend that users analyse the data in SPSS where possible.

Latest version

For the fourth edition (February 2025), the data file was resupplied, with an updated County Sports Partnership variable (CSP_2025), an updated inequalities metric variable (equalities_metric_2024_GR4), and new cultural activities variables (library visits, arts participation/visits, frequency) included.

The Active Lives Survey (ALS) commenced in November 2015. It replaces the Active People Survey, which ran from 2005 to 2015. The survey provides the largest sample size ever established for a sport and recreation survey and allows levels of detailed analysis previously unavailable. It identifies how participation varies from place to place, across different sports, and between different groups in the population. The survey also measures levels of activity (active, fairly active and inactive), the proportion of the adult population that volunteer in sports on a weekly basis, club membership, sports spectating and wellbeing measures such as happiness and anxiety, etc. The questionnaire was designed to enable analysis of the findings by a broad range of demographic information, such as gender, social class, ethnicity, household structure, age, and disability.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic developed rapidly during 2020 and 2021. Fieldwork for the Active Lives survey continued throughout the pandemic, which covered periods Nov 2019-20 and Nov 2020-21. The data from Nov 2021-22 onwards covers periods without any coronavirus restrictions.

More general information about the study can be found on the Sport England Active Lives Survey webpage and the Active Lives Online website, including reports and data tables.

Data Formats
Users should note that the Active Lives data are deposited in SPSS format. The UKDS also provides the data in Stata and tab-delimited formats, but due to the differing nature of the SPSS and Stata software packages and the structure of the Active Lives data, Stata users may experience some issues with labels or variable formats. We therefore recommend that users analyse the data in SPSS where possible.

Latest edition information

For the second edition (February 2025), the data file was resupplied, with updated County Sports Partnership (CSP_2025) and inequalities metric (equalities_metric_2024_GR4) variables included.