According to a survey commissioned by Sports England, the UK sports development agency, one fifth (21%) of the adult population of England regularly practice sport or other physical activity, which is somewhat more than the European average (15%).
However, the results also show that more than half of the population do not take part in any moderate-intensity sport or active recreation. The UK study findings confirm the outcomes of the recent Eurobarometer survey of Europeans' physical-activity habits, which show that in more than half of the countries, close to 50% of respondents do not take any exercise.
The Active People survey also shows that English men (23.7%) are slightly more regular in sport than women (18.3%) and that the highest socio-economic groups (25.1%) are far more active in taking regular physical exercise than the lowest socio-economic groups (16.3%).
The UK sport minister Richard Caborn finds the survey results both disappointing and worrying. "In the past decade we have invested a record £3 [€4.47] billion of public money in state-of-the-art facilities across England that are both accessible and affordable. The government can only do so much. Individuals must start to take responsibility for their health and fitness too," he told BBC News.
Following the 2006 Health Survey for England results stating that the UK will face a serious obesity problem by 2010, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed, in August 2006, a public health minister to work across government on a new strategy to increase the UK population's fitness and activity levels.
In December 2005, the Commission adopted a Green Paper on healthy diets and physical activity in Europe and, in November 2006, EU sports ministers called for the future White Paper on Sport to integrate health-enhancing physical activity into different policy sectors, through cross-sectoral co-operation at EU and national levels.
