Physical activity: children achieving the recommended level by age and gender

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There are two main sources of information on physical activity among children in Scotland - the Scottish Health Survey and the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. These two surveys have different methodologies and produce quite different estimates of physical activity levels among children in Scotland. The estimates produced by the Scottish Health Survey are presented here, while those produced by the HBSC survey are presented on the Children European comparison page. See the Key data sources page for details of the survey methodologies.

The 2008 Scottish Health Survey estimated that 72% of boys and 56% of girls achieved the recommended level of physical activity for children in the previous week. Chart 1 shows that across all but the 5-7 year old age group, a higher percentage of boys than girls achieved the recommended level of activity.

These figures suggest that progress will need to made, especially amongst girls, in terms of increasing children's physical activity levels if the national physical activity target is to be achieved. The target is for 80% of children aged 16 years and under to be meeting the minimum of physical activity for children by 2022.

Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.