Minutes a day of exercise, sport and wellbeing activities, Great Britain

What it means: the UK’s chief medical officers recommend adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, such as brisk walking or cycling, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity. Sport England’s Active Lives survey asks people aged 16 and over what they did in the past four weeks: 30.9 million adults met the guideline in 2024-25, against 62.1% of adults in 2015-16. Each survey year runs from mid-November, so 2019-20 and 2020-21 include the Covid lockdowns. The second chart comes from the ONS time use survey, where people record what they do through a day: in March 2026 adults averaged 26 minutes a day on exercise, sport and wellbeing activities such as yoga or meditation, and the 28.5% who did any on the day spent 90 minutes. A change of one point or more in the active share counts.

Source: Sport England, Active Lives Adult Survey, November 2024-25, table 1b; ONS, time use in the UK, March 2026, tables 1 to 3.