Almost eight out of ten people in England fail to do enough exercise, research suggests.
People who are poorer and less educated are least likely to exercise, but most adults do far below the recommended amount of activity needed to stay healthy.
The study, led by researchers at the University of Bristol, examined data for more than one million adults from the Active People Survey – which covers socio-economic position and factors such as the weather and access to sport facilities.
It found only around 20 per cent of people carried out moderate exercise at least 12 times in a four-week period.
More than 8 per cent of those physically able to walk had not done so for even five minutes continuously in the past four weeks and experts said participation in the most common activities was also ‘very low’.
Some 46 per cent had walked fewer than 30 minutes continuously during leisure time, 88 per cent had not been swimming and 90 per cent had not visited a gym in the previous four weeks.
Those with a degree had only a 12 per cent chance of not exercising enough but adults with no qualifications were three times as likely to be inactive.
Unsurprisingly, the blue skies and warm weather of summer prompted people to be more active than in winter.
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said the results showed a failure to deliver pledges – made by the Blair government during Britain’s Olympic bid – to encourage participation in sports.
She said: ‘The bid pledged that two million adults, let alone millions of children, would be inspired be to be active in a commitment to grassroots sports as an Olympic legacy.’
She said most people were ‘as uninspired to be active as ten years ago’.
The NHS recommends moderate exercise for 2.5 hours a week.
