Sport England: Number of active adults in England falls by 1.6 million compared with pre-pandemic levels

A jogger in London — Figures around those who are running and cycling are comparable to the first lockdown period in 2020

The number of active adults in England has fallen by 1.6 million compared with pre-pandemic levels in 2019, says a new report.

The Sport England study recorded a 1.9% drop in active adults - those doing at least 150 minutes of weekly exercise - in the 12 months up to mid-May 2021.

It also saw a 2% rise in those considered inactive - doing less than 30 minutes per week - in the same span.

However, the easing of restrictions in that period brought a partial recovery.

The Active Lives study shows that compared with 12 months earlier, there were 700,000 fewer active adults and one million more inactive adults between mid-May 2020 and mid-May 2021.

Overall, the report shows that activity levels remain 4.1% down, equivalent to 1.6 million adults, compared with levels in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic started.

"We know it will be a long haul to get people back to the activity levels we were seeing rising before the pandemic started," Sport England chief executive Tim Hollingsworth told BBC Sport.

The survey also found that women, young people aged 16-34, the over-75s, disabled people and those from minority ethnic backgrounds and lower socio-economic groups were most negatively affected.

Though all ethnic groups reported a drop in activity, it was most marked among black people and Asian people of non-Chinese ethnicity - with each seeing a fall of 4.8%.

"The impact of Covid is unsurprisingly extremely stark for everyone but it's been particularly difficult for certain parts of our community," Hollingsworth added.

"Those who have historically found it more difficult to access activity - were disproportionately impacted. And we know that once habits are broken, they are often harder to restart.

"The lesson that we can learn from this data is that every single one of us has got to think about coming back to more sport or more activity, but there will be some parts of our community who need help the most."