National Walking Month is a campaign organised by the Living Streets charity to promote the benefits of walking. It’s one of the easiest ways to be more active, lose weight and become healthier – and the month includes Walk to School Week (20-24 May). Social surveys collect lots of information about walking, whether as a mode of transport or as a way of keeping fit and active – so we hold several data collections which can tell us about the nation’s walking activities.
Over 8 in 10 of us walk when we take short trips under a mile, but this drops to 3 in 10 for trips between 1 and 2 miles. That’s according to National Travel Survey data from 2017. This household survey collects information on how, why, when and where people travel, as well as factors affecting travel such as car availability and driving licence holding. It’s the primary source of data on personal travel patterns in England, and helps to inform government policy. We have data available from 1972 to 2017. And – even though more of us could probably be walking when we make trips between 1 and 2 miles – we’re still a fairly active nation. 67% of respondents said they walked 20 minutes or more at least once a week in 2017.
The Active Lives Survey measures people’s activity levels across England and looks at the different sports and fitness activities we undertake. The latest results, covering November 2017 to November 2018, showed that the proportion of the adult population classed as active has increased to 62.6% – and one of the reasons for that was an increase in the number of active women. The survey began in November 2015 and replaces the Active People Survey which ran from 2005 to 2015. It asks adults about the activity they have engaged in twice in the last 28 days, and walking for leisure and walking for travel came out top. The survey predicts that 26.9 million people regularly walked for leisure and travel in the last year. You can explore the results on Sport England’s interactive Active Lives Online site.
In Scotland, less than half (44%) of adults had completed any brisk or fast pace walking for at least 10 minutes in the previous four weeks in 2017, according to the Scottish Health Survey. Men completed more walking than women (48% and 41% respectively) and spent a greater number of days on average participating in such an activity (9.3 compared with 7.8). The survey was set up in 1995, and has run continuously since 2008, providing a detailed picture of the health of the Scottish population in private households.
This large-scale survey of over 11,000 adults in Wales shows that in 2017-18, 59% of adults had participated in some sport or physical activity in the past 4 weeks. The most commonly-reported activity was to have walked more than 2 miles (33% of people). This survey covers topics such as health, schools, sports, arts and culture – and, since 2016-17, it has also contained topics previously included in the Welsh Health Survey.
The Continuous Household Survey began in 1983, and samples around 3,000 households in Northern Ireland each year. It includes a set of questions about how people travel to work. In 2016-2017, 13% of respondents who travel to work said they normally walk, and this was higher for those in urban areas, at 16%. Respondents aged 16-24 were more likely to normally walk to or from work (27%) than all other age groups.
See our health theme page for information on other health related data available in our collection.