Sport and Physical Activity: State of the Nation

Children and young people

In the Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO) guidelines, children and young people are defined as individuals aged 5 to 18 years. There are a different set of guidelines for early years which includes infants (less than 1 year), toddlers (1-2 years) and pre-schoolers (3-4 years). The Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) defines children and young people as those aged 2 to 15 years and adults as 16+, thus age ranges do not align completely with those of the CMO guidelines.

The data presented in this section is for children and young people aged 2-15 years for the period 2014 to 2024. Those aged 16 to 18 are included in the adult physical activity data.

Summary

• Children’s reported levels of physical activity have remained relatively stable since 2019 but have declined since peaks in 2014 and 2016. Reported time spent being sedentary and levels of low activity have increased slightly over the same period.
• The proportion reporting sport participation and walking for at least 5 minutes a day has remained fairly stable, fluctuating with no clear pattern over the ten years.
• Younger children are more likely to have reported meeting MVPA guidelines and participation in sport than older children, with reported activity levels dropping notably for girls aged 13-15.
• Children in the most deprived areas are significantly less likely to have reported meeting MVPA guidelines and participate in sport, to be less active and to have spent more time sedentary compared to those in the least deprived areas.
• Disabled children are also less likely to meet MVPA guidelines, participate in sport, and be more likely to have reported having low levels of activity and being sedentary than non-disabled children.
• Walking participation did not differ by deprivation or disability.

Activity intensity/frequency

The CMO guidelines recommend that children and young people (5-18 years) should engage in MVPA for an average of at least 60 minutes per day across the week. This can include all forms of activity such as physical education, active travel, after-school activities, play and sports.

MVPA captures any movement that gets your heart beating faster and makes you breathe harder, like brisk walking, cycling, or running. Activities can be differentiated by the ‘talk test’: being able to talk but not sing indicates moderate intensity activity, while having difficulty talking without pausing is a sign of vigorous activity.

• In 2024, 68% of children aged 2-15 years reported meeting this guideline.
• The overall trend has been relatively stable since 2019, but the 2024 figure of 68% is lower than the peaks observed in 2014 and 2016 of 76%.
• 16% of children reported low levels of activity (an average of less than 30 minutes of MVPA per day in previous week). This has increased from 9% in 2014.

Figure 1 shows the trend over time for the proportion of children and young people age 2-15 years who meet recommended levels of MVPA (including school activity) and those that have low levels of activity.

Sport and walking participation

The CMO guidelines recommend that children and young people should engage in a variety of types and intensities of physical activity across the week to develop movement skills, muscular fitness, and bone strength^[6]. Measures of sport participation and walking are used to indicate engagement in a variety of activities.

• In 2024, 66% of children reported participating in sport. This has remained relatively stable between 63% and 68% since 2014.
• In 2024, 58% of children reported spending at least 5 minutes walking every day in the past week compared to 52% in 2014. This is, however, not a statistically significant change.

Figure 2 shows the proportion of children who participated in sport and walking from 2014-2024.

Sedentary time

The CMO guidelines recommend that children and young people should aim to minimise the amount of time spent being sedentary, and when physically possible should break up long periods of not moving with at least light physical activity.

• Children’s reported sedentary time has increased over time in all age groups. In 2024, children reported spending an average of 3.8 hours per day being sedentary during weekday leisure time, up from 3.3 hours in 2015^[8].

Figure 3 shows the average number of hours children and young people spend sedentary during weekday leisure time.

Inequalities

Age and sex

• Younger children (5-12) are more likely to have reported meeting MVPA guidelines than older children (13-15). 13-15 year olds are the least likely to have reported participation in sport, while also being the most likely to have reported being inactive and spending longer being sedentary than their younger counterparts.
• Overall, there were no substantial differences between males and females in reporting meeting MVPA guidelines. However, analysis by age and sex reveals a distinct pattern for girls that has remained consistent over the time series. In age groups 5-7, 8-10 and 11-12, the percentage of all children meeting MVPA guidelines in 2024 ranges from 67% to 83%. For girls aged 13-15 the proportion is substantially lower at 43% in each of the years 2022 to 2024 and ranging between 46% and 53% back to 2014, see Figure 4.

Table 1 summarises physical activity indicators for children and young people by age group and sex in 2024.

Figure 5 shows how children and young people’s average sedentary time during weekday leisure varies by age group.

Deprivation

Deprivation is measured using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) which identifies areas of concentrated disadvantage. It ranks small geographic areas, called data zones, based on multiple domains of deprivation, including income, employment, health, education, housing, access to services, and crime to produce a composite score. The most deprived 20% of data zones are found within SIMD 1 and the least deprived 20% within SIMD 5.

• Children living in the most deprived areas (SIMD 1) are less likely than those living in the least deprived (SIMD 5) to have reported meeting MVPA guidelines (61% compared to 81%), or participation in sport (55% compared to 78%). Although walking participation was 56% compared to 68% respectively, this difference was not statistically significant.
• Children and young people living in the most compared to least deprived areas reported being more sedentary (4.1 hours versus 3.6 respectively) and were more likely to have reported low levels of activity (21% compared to 9%).

Table 2 summarises the differences in physical activity indicators for children and young people living in the most and least deprived areas.

Disability

Disability is measured by the presence of a life-limiting long-term illness (LLI). Long-term illnesses are defined as a physical or mental health condition or illness lasting or expected to last 12 limiting months or more. A long-term illness is defined as limiting if the respondent reported that it limited their activities in any way.

• Disabled children were less likely than non-disabled children to have reported meeting MVPA guidelines (61% compared to 69%), participate in sport (50% compared to 69%), and are more likely to have reported being inactive (21% compared to 15%) and have spent more hours on average being sedentary in their weekday leisure time (4.3 hours compared to 3.6). There was no significant difference in walking.
• The gap in reported sports participation between disabled and non-disabled children and young people has shown some fluctuations between 2014 and 2024, however, the gap has widened again since 2022 as a result of declining participation by those with a disability. Sports participation by children and young people without a disability has been relatively stable over the past 10 years.

Table 3 shows the difference in physical activity indicators where a child or young person is disabled or not. Figure 6 shows the trend over time in sports participation by disability.