Surge in post-pandemic fitness
Chris Broom
Many adults in our region are more active than they were before the pandemic, new figures show.
Sport England said its Active Lives survey shows a strong recovery across England after Covid-19 impacted people's exercise habits, but added a significant proportion of the population are still not meeting the recommended amount of activity.
The survey reveals 65.1 per cent of 481 respondents aged over 16 in Portsmouth said they were active in the year to November 2022, exercising for more than two and a half hours a week.
This is up from 63.8 per cent who said they were active pre-pandemic in 2018-19.
It is also an increase from 59.8% in 2020-21, when Covid-19 heavily impacted activity levels.
In Fareham the corresponding figure is 63.1 per cent of 495 respondents, up from 62.1 per cent in 2018-19.
And in Gosport the corresponding figure is 63.8 per cent of 511 respondents, up from 56.1 per cent in 2018-19.
But in Havant the corresponding figure is 58.3 per cent of 490 respondents, down from 60.9 per cent in 2018-19.
A Local Government Association
spokesperson said councils have been working hard to prioritise public sport and leisure facilities despite current challenging financial position in the sector caused by Covid-19 and increasing energy prices.
They added: ‘It is positive to see adult activity levels bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels and we echo recognition of those working and volunteering across the sport and physical activity sector to support people to be active.
‘“However, we would like to see more done to ensure all parts of the community are being engaged with.’
Nationally, 63.1% of the population met the Chief
Medical Officer's guidelines of doing 150 minutes or more of physical activity a week.
This is up from 61.4% the year before and near 63.3% recorded in 2018-19.
Nick Pontefract, chief strategy officer at Sport England, said the recovery of adult activity levels is a testament to work done by the sport and physical activity sector.
The figures show 24.5% of adults in Portsmouth said they were inactive – below the national average of 25.8%.
A further 10.5% said they were fairly active, exercising between 30 to 149 minutes a week.