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October 2023 - Sport, Leisure and Tourism

Running has been found to be the top sport people are participating in twice a month: A survey looking at the sports people took part in over the course of a year has found that running was the top sport recorded with 5,896.8 saying they had exercised in this way at least twice in a 28-day period at any intensity or duration.

The survey which was conducted online and is available on the Statista website polled 177,551 respondents aged 16 and over in England. It found that running was more popular than fitness classes (5,779.4 respondents taking part) and going to the gym for a workout (4,842.6 respondents), which ranked third.

The fourth most popular exercise activity was found to be exercise machines with 3,010.1 respondents taking part, followed by swimming (3,795.6) and hill or mountain walking (3,582.8).   Weight sessions (2,602.7), interval sessions (2,178.7) and football (2,012.3) were also popular choices, although running was at least twice as popular.

The least popular sport that people took part in between November 2021 and 22 was boxing found the research, with 593.9 taking part overall, followed by badminton (733.2) and tennis (915). Golf (1,035.7), active play (1,082.2) and generic fitness training were also included in the survey.

The research also found that when it comes to children, swimming and football were the most popular sports, with 5-10 year-olds engaging most with swimming, and football topping the chart for 10-15 year-olds.

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