Greater Manchester Children & Young People Activity Levels 2022-23

45.6% of children and young people in Greater Manchester meet Chief Medical Officer guidelines and achieve an average of 60 minutes or more of physical activity a day. Whilst 32.2% are failing to achieve 30 minutes of physical activity a day.

Overhead view of a group dance exercise class in a community centre

The latest Active Lives Children and Young People (CYP) Survey data from Sport England for the academic year 2022-23 has been released and shows that the initial recovery from the impact Covid-19 had on the activity levels of children and young people has remained stable.

There has been a small decrease from 12 months ago in those that are active (-3.7%) but overall still shows recovery to pre-pandemic levels (academic year 2018-19). However, levels have now returned below national rates since the previous academic year (47.0% by -2.6%).

CYP Active Over Time in GM and England

Overall:

  • 45.6% of children and young people are active, average 60+ minutes of physical activity every day
  • 22.2% are fairly active, achieve an average of 30-59 minutes of physical activity a day
  • 32.2% are inactive, do less than 30 minutes of physical activity a day.

Borough Level Data

CYP Active levels over time by area in GM

Activity rates vary considerably across Greater Manchester with there being a 15.3% gap between the borough with the highest levels of activity, Bolton (52.7%) and the borough with the lowest levels of activity, Salford (37.4%).

This gap between boroughs has increased since the last release when there was a 10.0% gap.

There will be an update of CYP demographic data in the New Year.

N.B. Some of the data has been suppressed because there is less than 150 responses in total or only 1-2 responding schools in the LA meaning the data is insufficiently reliable

Published December 2023