For 2024/25, Sport England introduced a new Physical Literacy Consensus Statement into the survey, moving beyond minutes of activity to measure how children actually feel about sport: whether they enjoy it, feel confident doing it, and understand why it matters.
These figures are reported at national level rather than by region, but they help explain the confidence and enjoyment gaps that sit behind London’s stalled activity numbers, since children with more positive attitudes are consistently more likely to be active.
- Nationally, 80% of children and young people agree they have a positive and meaningful relationship with sport (enjoyment, feeling valued, and it mattering to them), but only 31% strongly agree with all three parts of this.
- Confidence and competence lag well behind enjoyment: just 43% strongly agree they feel confident when active, and only 31% strongly agree they find sport easy or are good at it, the lowest scoring domain measured.
- Boys are consistently more likely than girls to agree across every physical literacy domain, with the widest gap in enjoyment, where 60% of boys strongly agree they enjoy taking part.
- Children with more positive attitudes are more likely to meet daily activity guidelines, underlining that motivation and inclusion matter as much as access when it comes to closing London’s activity gap.
Source: Sport England, Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, academic year 2024/25, national data