engaging in 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).
engaging in muscle strengthening and balance training activities at least two times a week.
minimising sedentary time, and when physically possible break up long periods of inactivity with at least light physical activity.
In 2022, 65% of adults (70% of men and 60% of women) did a sufficient amount of MVPA to meet the physical activity guidelines (Scottish Health Survey 2022, section 9.2.1).This is a smaller proportion than in 2021, when 69% of adults (73% of men and 65% of women) met the MVPA physical activity guidelines (Scottish Health Survey 2021, section 6.2.1).
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 achieved both the recommended MVPA activity and two or more days of muscle-strengthening activities per week: 32% of men and 25% of women met both parts of the guidelines (Scottish Health Survey 2022, section 9.2.4). This was a smaller proportion than in 2021 (38% and 32% respectively; Scottish Health Survey 2021, section 6.2.4). Younger adults were generally more likely to meet this recommendation than older people, although 25-34 year old women were more likely to meet the recommendation than 16-24 year old women, as shown in Chart 2.
In 2022, 22% 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; Scottish Health Survey 2022, section 9.2.1). This is a higher proportion than in 2021 (16%; Scottish Health Survey 2021, section 6.2.1).
In 2022, both men and women reported an average of 5.6 hours of sedentary time per day on a weekday (Scottish Health Survey 2022, section 9.2.7).
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 2022. 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. The pattern is similar for those with very low levels of physical activity: adults in the most deprived fifth of areas were more likely to have very low activity levels than those in the least deprived fifth of areas (27% and 12% respectively for men and 33% and 14% respectively for women, data not shown, but can be accessed at Supporting documents - The Scottish Health Survey 2022, Chapter 9: Physical activity tables document, Table 9.3).
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 decreased slightly between 2021 and 2022. Some methodology changes between 2019 and 2021 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.
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 2022, 13% of respondents reported walking, while 3% reported cycling. 68% of respondents reported that they usually drive (64%) or are passengers (4%) in a car/van. 31% of employed people surveyed reported working from home in 2022, with 38% travelling to work 5 days a week.
A national indicator is the percentage of journeys under two miles made on foot, and journeys under five miles made by bicycle. In 2022, 46% of journeys under two miles were made on foot, and 2% of journeys under five miles were made by bike. These proportions are descriptively lower, but not statistically significantly different from the proportions in 2019. They are not directly comparable with data from 2020 and 2021 due to methodological changes (source: Transport and Travel in Scotland 2022, pages 29 and 30)
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.
