New data shows London’s activity levels remain above national average

New Sport England figures show that nearly two thirds (64.4%) of Londoners are now physically active, an increase of 0.8 per cent on data from the previous 12-month period.

Findings from the data show that in London, just over 4.5m people (64.4%) are meeting the Chief Medical Officers guidelines of at least 150 minutes of physical activity every week.

The percentage of people considered fairly active – completing 30-149 minutes per week – in London fell by one per cent in the past year while the number of inactive Londoners remained the same (24.3%).

London (64.4%) outperforms the national average (63.2%) and is also ahead of some of the UK’s other major cities, including Manchester (61.2%) and Birmingham (58.6%), in terms of percentage of people who are active.

Since the Active Lives data begun in 2015, one million more people have got active across the country with the total figure reaching 28.6m people nationwide for the first time.

The number of inactive people – doing fewer than 30 minutes of physical activity per week – is down to 11.2 million, a decrease of 131,700 since 2015 and the lowest figure ever recorded by the survey.

For more information on exercise and staying healthy, click here to visit the NHS Live Well website.