Relevance

People participate in sport and active leisure for a wide variety of reasons: for physical fitness and mental wellbeing, enjoyment and entertainment, for personal growth and development, and as a means to meet new people.

Current Level And Trends

Seventy percent of adults aged 18 years or over and 66 percent of young people aged 5 to 17 years were reported to be physically active in 2000/2001.

More adults were physically active in 2000/2001 than in 1997/1998 (67 percent). Over the same period there was no significant change in the proportion of young people who were active. However young people who were sedentary (who had done no activity in past two weeks) increased from eight percent to 13 percent.

Table L2.1 Activity level of adults and young people by sex, 2000/2001

Activity level	Young people 5-17 years			Adults 18 years and over
	Boys	Girls	All	Men	Women	All
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Sendentary	11.6	14.1	12.8	8.9	9.6	9.3
Relatively inactive	17.9	23.4	20.7	21.0	20.7	20.9
Inactive	29.5	37.6	33.5	30.0	30.4	30.2
Relatively active	20.9	26.1	23.5	13.3	18.3	15.9
Highly active	49.6	36.3	43.0	56.7	51.4	54.0
Active	70.5	62.4	66.5	70.0	69.6	69.8

Source: SPARC Trends, 1997-2000

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Sex Differences

Men and women were equally likely to be physically active in 2000/2001. This resulted from an increase in the proportion of women who were physically active, from 65 percent in 1997/1998 to 70 percent in 2000/2001. In each of the survey years, men were more likely than women to be highly active (five hours or more in the seven days prior to interview).

In 2000/2001, a smaller proportion of girls (62 percent) were physically active than boys (70 percent) and boys were much more likely to be highly active than girls. An increase in the proportion doing no physical activity at all in the past two weeks occurred for boys and girls between 1997/1998 and 2000/2001.

Age Differences

Adults aged 65 or over became the most active adult age group in 2000/2001 (76 percent) with the proportion of active adults of this age increasing from 67 percent in 1997/1998. Smaller but significant increases were also apparent for 50-64 year-olds and 35-49 year-olds.

Comparing across all age groups, 16-17 year-olds were the least likely to be active (49 percent in 2000/2001). The proportion of young people aged 13-15 that were active fell from 74 percent in 1997/1998 to 62 percent in 2000/2001.

Ethnic Differences

European adults were more likely to be physically active than adults of other ethnic groups in 2000/2001. In that year the proportion of Europeans who were physically active reached 72 percent, an increase from 68 percent in 1997/1998.

Young Māori and Pacific people were much less likely to be physically active in 2000/2001 than in 1997/1998. The proportion of young Pacific people who were sedentary (did no activity in the two weeks prior to interview) rose from 6 percent in 1997/1998 to 33 percent in 2000/2001. The proportion of young Māori who were sedentary rose from 6 percent to 18 percent over this period.

Table L2.2 Activity level of young people aged 5-17 years by ethnic group, 2000/2001

Activity Level	European	Māori	Pacific	Other
	%	%	%	%
Sedentary	9.3	18.4	32.9	7.1
Relatively inactive	21.7	15.9	19.8	24.0
Inactive	31.0	34.3	52.7	31.1
Relatively active	23.8	18.4	21.7	38.0
Highly active	45.2	47.3	25.6	30.9
Active	69.0	65.7	47.3	68.9

Source: SPARC (2003b)

Table L2.3 Activity level of adults aged 18 years and above by ethnic group, 2000/2001

Activity Level	European	Māori	Pacific	Other
	%	%	%	%
Sedentary	7.8	14.8	9.5	21.0
Relatively inactive	19.8	20.9	28.2	30.0
Inactive	27.6	35.7	37.7	51.1
Relatively active	16.1	13.4	14.8	19.3
Highly active	56.4	50.9	47.5	29.6
Active	72.4	64.3	62.3	48.9

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