at least moderate activity for a minimum of 150 minutes a week or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, or shorter durations of very vigorous activity (or an equivalent combination of the three). The guidelines state that, "Moderate and vigorous activity can be differentiated by the ‘talk test’: being able to talk but not sing indicates moderate intensity activity, while having difficulty talking without pausing is a sign of vigorous activity.” (UK Chief Medical Officers’ Physical Activity Guidelines, p.14).
Additionally, it is recommended that muscle-strengthening activities should be carried out at least twice a week and that sedentary time should be minimised.
Please note that some of the estimates of adherence to physical activity guidelines presented here pre-date the new guidelines being published. This means that only bouts of 10 minutes or more were included towards the 150 minutes per week guideline. The questionnaires used to derive the estimates tend to ask about moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).
Self-reported physical activity information can be obtained from the Scottish Health Survey and Scottish Household Survey. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, a shorter version of the Scottish Health Survey was conducted in 2020 than in previous years. Since the 2020 survey was conducted over the telephone (rather than face-to-face), and some questions were changed, it is not comparable with previous years. For example, a less detailed set of questions about physical activity levels were used compared with previous Scottish Health Surveys.
Similarly, the Scottish Household Survey was conducted via video or telephone, the response rate was lower than usual and the characteristics of respondents were different compared to previous years. This means that results are not comparable with those from previous years.
Physical activity levels by age and gender
In 2021, 69% of adults (73% of men and 65% of women) did a sufficient amount of MVPA to meet the physical activity guidelines. Chart 1 shows that activity levels are associated with age for both men and women: younger adults are generally more likely than those in older age groups to meet the physical activity guidelines.
Fewer people also achieved the recommended two or more days of muscle-strengthening activities per week: 38% of men and 32% of women met both parts of the guidelines. Younger adults were more likely to meet this recommendation than older people, as shown in Chart 2.
In 2021, 16% of adults reported very low levels of physical activity (less than 30 minutes per week of moderate activity or less than 15 minutes of vigorous activity or an equivalent combination of these).
In 2021, men in employment reported an average of 4.4 hours of sedentary time per day at work, while women reported an average of 4.2 hours (Scottish Health Survey 2021: supplementary tables, Table WF9 from document 6. Adult physical activity).
Physical activity levels by deprivation
Chart 3 shows the percentage of adults who met the physical activity guidelines, by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile in 2021. SIMD is the Scottish Government's official measure of area based multiple deprivation. Adults living in the most deprived fifth of areas were less likely to report meeting the physical activity guidelines than those living in the least deprived fifth of areas. For females, those in the 40% most deprived areas are less likely to report meeting the physical activity guidelines than those in the 60% least deprived. The pattern is similar for those with very low levels of physical activity: adults in the most deprived areas were more likely to have very low activity levels than those in the least deprived areas (12% and 22% respectively for men and 10% and 29% respectively for women, data not shown, but can be accessed at Supporting documents - The Scottish Health Survey 2021, Chapter 6: Physical activity tables document, Table 6.3).
Active commuting
Active commuting includes walking or cycling to work, and is a way of building physical activity into daily travel. The Transport and Travel in Scotland report provides results from the Scottish Household Survey about how respondents usually travel to work. In 2021, 14% of respondents reported walking, while 4% reported cycling. 71% of respondents reported that they usually drive (68%) or are passengers (3%) in a car/van. These results are not comparable to previous years, due to methodological differences because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the sample size was much smaller in 2021, due to changes in the mode of survey delivery, as well as a decrease in the proportion of adults travelling to work, following Scottish Government advice to work from home where practicable.
Physical activity levels: progress towards national targets
The proportion of adults meeting physical activity guidelines is an indicator in Scotland’s National Performance Framework. Chart 4 shows that the percentage of adults who met the physical activity guidelines has been trending upwards over time, and there has been an increase from 66% in 2019 to 69% in 2021, although some methodology changes between 2021 and 2019 should be noted (detailed in the Scottish Health Survey 2021 technical report). Data from 2020 are not comparable because of data collection changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another national indicator is the percentage of journeys under two miles made on foot, and journeys under five miles made by bicycle. In 2021, 56.2% of journeys under two miles were made on foot, and 2.8% of journeys under five miles were made by bike. These are not directly comparable with previous years due to methodological changes (source: Transport and Travel in Scotland 2021: Results from the Scottish Household Survey, page 19).
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.
