Children in UK are least active in the world

Kimberley EYC

8 years ago

New research, ranking 38 countries for children’s physical activity, places the United Kingdom at the bottom.

Research into the physical activity levels of children gives England and Wales a grade of D-, and Scotland an F, placing it in last position with countries such as Belgium, China, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

These rankings show a drop in England’s grade for 2014, when it received an overall grade of C/D.Compiled by the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance, a network of researchers and health professionals, the 2016 rankings show that high-income countries fare worse for overall physical activity than low-income countries, including Mozambique and Mexico which scored higher than England, Scotland and Wales.

Countries rated as the best for physical activity in children are Slovenia (grade A-), New Zealand (grade B-) and Zimbabwe.

The Alliance states that ‘digitalisation’ is to blame for the reduced levels of physical activity in the worst offending countries. They claim ‘being active’ is not a way of life for children as it is in those countries that came out on top.

It goes on to suggest that having policies and programmes in place to get children moving fails to make a difference if being active isn’t a ‘cultural norm’.

The Alliance hopes to repeat the study in two or three years’ time with more countries.