Children in England most active since 2017 – but majority still fall short of targets

Children playing games in the school playground during dinner time at Feversham primary academy in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Children in England are the most active they have been since 2017, according to research that warns that less than half are meeting government activity level targets.

In 2024-25, 3.6 million children took part in an average of more than 60 minutes of sport and physical activity per day across the week, according to Sport England’s annual active lives survey. This represents 49.1% of five- to 16-year-olds in England – a 1.3% increase on the previous year, and a 5.8% increase on 2017, when the survey began.