Scottish household survey 2018: key findings

Physical Activity and Sport 

Participation

In 2018, the vast majority of adults (80 per cent) had taken part in physical activity or sport in the previous four weeks.

People have become more active in recent years (rising from 72 per cent in 2010 to 80 per cent in 2018). The rise in physical activity was driven by a rise in recreational walking.

The proportion of adults who reported frequent participation (on more than 14 days in the past four weeks) in physical activity and sport (including walking) has increased from 36 per cent in 2007 to 50 per cent in 2018.

Since 2007, the rise in frequency (increase of 14 percentage points) is greater than the rise in the number of people becoming active (increase of seven percentage points) which suggests that the increase in frequency of participation is due to individuals who are already active becoming more active.

The most common activity in 2018 was walking for at least 30 minutes (for recreational purposes), reported by 68 per cent of adults.

Less than one in five (<20 per cent) adults participated in other individual physical activities. 

When walking was excluded, the gap between participation levels in the 20 per cent most and the 20 per cent least deprived areas increased from 19 percentage points in 2007 to 27 percentage points in 2018.

Dotted lines indicate where there has been an update to SIMD.