Highlights

Physical activity

• Only 9% of boys and 10% of girls aged under 5 met the guidelines of at least three hours of physical activity per day.
• A higher proportion of boys than girls aged 5-15, 21% and 16% respectively, met guidelines of at least one hour of moderately intensive physical activity per day.
• Among both sexes, the proportion meeting guidelines was lower in older children than in adults.
• Overall, 93% of boys and 92% of girls had participated in some type of physical activity in the last week.

Walking to school

• 41% of boys and 44% of girls walked to and from school every day. On average, children spent 1.1 hours walking to and from school in the last week.

Formal and informal activity

• Nearly half of boys, 48%, were more likely than girls, 38%, to have participated in formal sports on at least one occasion in the last week.
• Boys averaged more days of participation in informal activities in the last week, 4.0 days, than girls, 3.8 days.

Being sedentary

• Excluding time at school, the average total sedentary time for boys and girls was similar during the week, 3.3 hours and 3.2 hours respectively.
• Among children aged 2-10, the mean number of sedentary hours on a typical weekday decreased between 2008 and 2012.
• The average time per weekday spent watching TV increased steadily with age in boys, however the increase among girls was much steeper.
• For both boys and girls, the average number of hours spent watching TV on both weekdays and weekend days increased with household income.