SPARC Facts 1997-2001

How active are young people?

The most active young people are those aged 9-12 years – around 76% of them are active. 70% of young people aged 13-15 years old are also active. The most inactive young people are those aged 16-17 years (47%), especially young girls (54%). More than two in five boys (41%) aged 16-17 years are also inactive.

Young people spend an average of just over 6.5 hours a week playing sport and being active. On average boys are active for 1.5 hours more a week than girls. 9-12- year-olds are active for more time each week than both the younger and older age groups.

When young girls reach 16-17 years an increasing proportion become sedentary – that is they have not done any physical activity in the two weeks prior to being interviewed. There is also a fall in the proportion of girls who are highly active – 43% of young girls who are aged 9-12 years are highly active compared to 26% of those girls aged 16-17 years.

Levels of physical activity among young people in New Zealand

Activity level %	Girls	Boys	5-8 years	9-12 years	13-15 years	16-17 years
Sedentary	10	9	8	5	9	24
Relatively inactive	26	18	25	19	21	23
Inactive	36	27	33	24	30	47
Relatively active	27	22	28	24	24	16
Highly active	37	51	39	51	46	37
Active	64	73	67	76	70	53
Hours active per week (average)	5.8	7.3	5.9	7.2	6.9	6.4
Number of young people surveyed	1748	1857	1182	1023	809	591

Activity level %	Māori	European	Pacific Island	Other ethnic groups	All young people
Sedentary	10	8	19	12	9
Relatively inactive	19	21	28	29	22
Inactive	29	30	48	41	32
Relatively active	21	26	19	23	24
Highly active	50	45	33	36	44
Active	71	70	52	59	68
Hours active per week (average)	7.7	6.5	5.6	5.7	6.6
Number of young people surveyed	664	2469	213	255	3605

Note: See page 5 for the definition of the activity levels. Average hours per week are calculated for young people who take part in sport and active leisure.

Boys aged 16-17 years are also more sedentary when compared to younger boys. Unlike younger girls, the proportion of boys who are highly active remains at a similar level (around 59%) between ages 9-15 years, although, like young girls, falls when they reach 16-17 years (46%). As boys grow older there are more likely to be reducing proportions of those who are relatively active (from 28% to 13%) and increases in those young boys up to the age of 15 years being highly active.

Levels of physical activity among young people by gender and age

	All young people %		5-8 yrs %		9-12 yrs %		13-15 yrs %		16-17 yrs %
	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys
Sedentary	10	9	9	7	5	5	10	8	28	21
Relative inactive	26	18	28	23	24	14	25	17	26	20
Inactive	36	27	36	30	29	19	35	25	54	41
Relatively active	27	22	27	28	27	22	30	18	20	13
Highly active	37	51	37	42	43	59	35	58	26	46
Active	64	73	64	70	71	81	65	75	46	59

Ethnicity

Activity levels also vary with young people's ethnic backgrounds. Young Māori and European are the most active (71% and 70% respectively). The least active are young Pacific people and people from other ethnic groups: 52% and 59% of these young people are active. Young Māori spend, on average, around 7.7 hours a week playing sport and being active.

Young people from a European background are active for 6.5 hours a week, while young Pacific people and young people from other ethnic groups are active for less than six hours a week.

Ethnicity and gender

Within each ethnic group, activity levels vary for boys and girls. As the table below shows:

Māori and Pacific boys and girls are equally active.
Boys from a European background and other ethnic groups are more active than girls from their respective ethnic groups.
Boys from a European background are the most active of all young people (76%), while girls from other ethnic groups and Pacific girls are the least active (48% and 45% respectively).

Levels of physical act ivity vary for boys and girls from different ethnic groups

Activity level	All young people %	Boys %	Māori boys %	European boys %	Pacific boys %	Other ethnic groups boys %
Sedentary	9	9	10	7	18	10
Relative inactive	22	18	17	17	29	27
Inactive	32	27	28	24	47	37
Relatively active	24	22	19	23	19	19
Highly active	44	51	53	53	34	44
Active	68	73	72	76	53	63

Activity level %	All young people %	Girls %	Māori girls %	European girls %	Pacific girls %	Other ethnic groups girls %
Sedentary	9	10	9	10	20	13
Relative inactive	22	26	21	26	28	32
Inactive	32	36	30	36	48	45
Relatively active	24	27	23	28	20	26
Highly active	44	37	46	36	32	28
Active	68	64	70	64	52	55

Note: Some totals do not add up to 100% due to rounding. The figures for boys and girls from Pacific and other ethnic groups are based on less than 100 respondents and so provide an indication of activity levels for these young people, rather than exact figures.

Ethnicity and age

Activity levels also vary for young people of different ages and ethnicities. Overall, for Māori young people the most active are the 9-12-year-olds (75%). For young Māori aged 5-8 and 13-17 years the active range lies between 61% and 73%.

This pattern is also true for European young people, but only 53% of 16-17-year-olds are active, a fall from 71% (13-15-year-olds). For Pacific young people, activity level is the lowest for the youngest age group (5-8 year-olds) but increases as these young people grow older – 55% of Pacific young people aged 9-15 years are active. It falls again when they reach 16-17 years (52%), although not as much as it falls for 16-17-year-old Europeans and young people from other ethnic groups.

Young people from other ethnic groups follow a similar pattern to European young people, except that those aged 5-8 years are active at a similar level to 16-17-yearolds.

Levels of physical activity vary with the age of young people from different ethnic groups

Age groups		5-8 yrs %	9-12 yrs %	13-15 yrs %	16-17 yrs %
All young people	Inactive	33	24	30	47
All young people	Active	67	76	70	53
Māori young people	Inactive	31	25	27	39
Māori young people	Active	69	75	73	61
European young people	Inactive	29	22	29	47
European young people	Active	71	78	71	53
Pacific young people	Inactive	52	45	44	48
Pacific young people	Active	48	55	56	52
Other ethnic groups young people	Inactive	50	31	36	51
Other ethnic groups young people	Active	50	69	64	49

Note: Some totals do not add up to 100% due to rounding.

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