This video features Sport England’s Director of Strategy, Nick Pontefract, talking to camera, with graphics detailing the Active Lives statistics he’s describing, appearing and disappearing on the screen around him.
Copy in italics is Nick speaking.
The words ‘Active Lives Survey 2024-25 Explained’ appear on a white screen, with a royal blue border around it and the Sport England logo in the top right corner.
Nick speaking: “Adults in England are more active than at any point in the last decade, continuing the strong recovery we've seen in recent years from the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The text flies off screen and Nick appears on screen, with a caption detailing his name and job title, along with a map of the UK, with England highlighted in green, and the words ‘More active’ appearing over it.
The map flies off screen and a line chart appears, showing a line trending upwards from 2015 to 2025, with a portion highlighted in the middle to indicate the period of the Covid-19 pandemic. The line ends on a high with the value of 64.6% on screen, indicating the percentage of adults in England who are active.
“Overall activity levels have increased again to their highest since the survey began back in 2015, showing that we're genuinely building a more active nation.”
The shot zooms into the figure and an arrow appears below it, showing that the figure is up 0.7% from the 2023-24 results.
“There are over 850,000 more active adults this year compared to last. That's 3.3 million more active adults since the survey began.”
The picture pans back out, the arrows flips off screen, the chart is made fuzzy and in focus on top of it are the words ‘850,000+ more active adults this year’.
The text changes to read ‘3.3 million more active adults total’.
“And the number of people who are inactive, doing less than 30 minutes of activity a week, has also fallen over the ten years since we started measuring.”
The text shrinks off screen, the chart beneath comes back into focus and a new line indicating ‘inactive adults’ appears on in, showing a gradual trend downwards, finishing with 24.7% for these 2024-25 results. An arrow appears over this figure, showing the number is down 0.9% since the 2015-16 results.
“All of that points to a country that is increasingly aware of what being active can do for you. For your physical health, your mental well-being, for education and skills, for confidence and your sense of a connection to the people around you.”
Nick and the chart slide off screen and a shot of a man swimming in a pool, shot from underneath the water line, appears. He then pops up above the water line before it switches to a shot of a group of people playing wheelchair rugby, starting with a close up of someone’s hands pushing their chair forwards, before panning out to a wide shot of the game.
The screen then splits to one shot of a woman swimming underwater, and another of a group of men playing football on an artificial pitch under floodlights.
The screen splits again to have these two shots on top, with new shots below comprising a close up of an ice hockey stick dribbling a puck and a group of cyclists chatting whilst stopped.
“People are finding new ways to move. And many of them are being supported to do that by the brilliant partners that Sport England works alongside.”
The shot pans out to a single frame, with the cyclists shaking hands. It switches to a clip of an aqua aerobics class, an older person playing seated bowls, another doing seated exercise with a small dumbbell and a close up of feet walking round a sports hall while others complete activities involving cones around them.
The videos slide off screen and Nick reappears against a white background, with the blue border still there.
“A big part of this year's increase has been driven by older adults, people working hard to stay active as they get older because they understand what that means for a longer and healthier life.”
Nick slides to the left and a line chart appears to his right, showing levels of ‘active’ people for various age groups (those doing an average of at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a week). A red line for ages 55-74 starts at 63.5% in 2023-24 and rises to 64.3% for 24-25. A green line for those aged 75+ starts at 42.8% and raises to 44.3%.
"We're also seeing real change in the type of activity people are choosing."
The chart slides off to the right and Nick moves back to the centre of the screen.
"Gym and fitness activity is getting more and more popular and has grown significantly,
contributing to the overall increase."
Nick moves back to the left and another chart appears to his right. This shows types of activity and their respective participation numbers. A timeline of 2016-17 to 2024-25 is shown on screen, with the pandemic period again highlighted.
A red line for fitness activities appears, starting at 13.2 million, gradually rising, dipping sharply during the pandemic years, and then rising again to 15.3m for 24/25. A red arrow appears to show the figure is up 0.9m from 2023-24.
"Muscle strengthening activity, hugely important for health alongside cardiovascular exercise, has also increased. Just under 1 million more adults aged 55 and over are now meeting the guidelines since November 2019-20."
The chart slides off to the right and a bar chart appears showing muscle strength (classed as 2+ weekly sessions). For adults aged 55+ a green bar appears covering 2019-20 and rides to 38%, a purple bar covering 2024-25 rises to the right of it, reaching 41%.
"But inequalities in activity levels remain."
The chart slides off to the right and Nick moves to the centre again.
"While both men's and women's activity has grown, the gender gap has proven hard to close. And people with a disability or a long-term health condition are still less active than the population as a whole."
Nick slides to the left and a bar chart appears to his right. Showing percentages of ‘active’ people, a red bar for men indicates 67%, while a green for women indicates 62%.
This chart slides to the right and is replaced by a similar one for those with a disability or long-term health condition. A red bar for ‘without’ rises to 70%, while a blue bar for ‘with’ rises to 45%.
"Where you live can also have a huge impact on how active you are."
This chart slides to the right and is replaced by a similar one for where you live. A red bar for ‘least deprived’ rises to 70%, a green bar for ‘mid-deprived’ rises to 65% and a blue bar for ‘most deprived’ rises to 57%.
"And this is why at Sport England, we remain committed to tackling these challenges by concentrating our efforts and our investment on those that need it the most."
Nick disappears from screen and we switch to a series of quick cutting clips showing people participating in various activities.
A man addresses a group of people on the steps outside a building.
A middle-aged man talks to an older woman on a walk in a park.
A group of women talk as they walk along a towpath.
A older man and an older woman take part in seated exercises, as part of a larger group, stretching from side to side.
"This report provides the headlines, but you can use the detailed data tables on our website to dig deeper into the results, to explore trends over time, audiences not covered in this report and look into more specific activities."
Nick reappears and an animated paper report flies onto screen to his right, with the report matching the cover of the Active Lives Adult Survey November 2024-25 Report. The report has a cover photo of a group of older adults doing seated exercises in a dance studio, using green resistance bands.
The report shrinks off screen and Nick slides back to the centre.
Nick slides off screen before a royal blue birthday fills the screen, upon which appears a white box with the Sport England logo beneath it in white. In the box appears the text sportengland.org/activelives
