Active lives survey: Has exercise changed in 2022?

The survey found children are generally doing more sport than last year!

Sport England has put together a new report on exercise levels in young people over the past two years.

It looks like general activity levels are up to where they were before the pandemic - but not for everyone.

If you feel like keeping active makes you feel good, you're not the only one - the survey found a link between happiness and exercise!

What is your experience with keeping active? Do you enjoy your PE lessons? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page!

How much exercise should we be getting?

Children and young people are supposed to do around 60 minutes of physical activity a day.

This is any sport or activity that makes you out of breath, and ups your heart rate.

It could be anything from scoring goals on the football pitch to showing off your moves at martial arts - there are plenty of ways to keep active!

Looking back on the pandemic

During the pandemic, you might have taken part in some indoor workouts, or made the most of the one hour outdoors during the stricter periods of lockdown.

However, in general, activity levels went down for young people. This was due to school closures for lockdowns, and less time spent outdoors.

Now, researchers want to see if young people are getting back up to the levels of exercise they were doing before Covid-19 and, in general, they have!

Children all over the UK missed out on PE lessons when schools closed for the Coronavirus lockdown in 2020

Activity levels "generally" improving

Since the last survey, which was done for 2020-2021, activity levels are up by 2.6%.

This is matching the levels from 2018-2019, and up over 4% from the survey before that.

However, for younger children aged seven to nine, there has not been much of an increase in activity levels since last year.

Getting moving for your mental wellbeing

How does keeping active make you feel?

Sport England found that young people are seeing more of a link between exercise and feeling good.

Whether it's getting out the house or letting off some steam, children who were more active generally scored higher on the "happiness" questions.

Exercising regularly is closely linked with feeling good - how does it make you feel?

Taking part in a regular sport could mean you're a part of a team - which can reduce feelings of loneliness

What other things impact our exercise levels?

Although 60 minutes a day is the goal for staying active, not everyone has the same access to exercise and sport.

Gender, disability, long-term health conditions and where people live can impact how much sport people do.

This could be anything from access to sports equipment, where you live, the school you go to, and other things that impact your day-to-day life.

Boys aged 11-16 have seen their positivity around exercise return to how it was before the pandemic, but girls in the same age group are not enjoying sport as much as they did before the pandemic.

There are lots of reasons why some people might not do as much sport, such as social pressure, or feeling like you're not represented in the sport you enjoy

You can watch Newsround's investigation into girls dropping out of sport here.

How do you feel about exercise? Let us know in the comments!