Activity levels in New Zealand
Data and statistics on activity levels for New Zealand adults and children.
Adults
The 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey found:
- half of all adults (52.1 percent) are physically active for at least 30 minutes on five or more days per week
- one in ten (9.9 percent) adults are physically active for less than 30 minutes per week
- there has been no significant change in physical activity levels between 2002/03 and 2006/07.
A Sport New Zealand study, the 2007/2008 Active New Zealand Survey, found similar levels of adult physical activity to the New Zealand Health Survey (48.2 percent are physically activity on at least five days out of seven and 12.7 percent less than 30 minutes of physical activity over seven days). For more information visit the Active NZ Survey website.
Children and young people
Active transport
Nearly half of children aged 5–14 years (47 percent) usually use active transport (eg, walking, cycling) to get to and from school (2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey).
Television watching for children aged 5–14 years
Nearly two thirds of children aged 5–14 years usually watched two or more hours of television a day (64.1 percent) (2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey).
According to Youth 2007 sedentary activities are common among secondary school students, 35 percent of students watched television for three or more hours each day and 20 percent of male students played games for three or more hours each day compared with only 5 percent of female students.
The proportion of students watching more than one hour of TV each day increased from 55 percent in 2001 to 73 percent in 2007.
Activity levels
In Youth 2007 only 11 percent of the 9107 secondary school students met the current recommendations of 60 minutes of physical activity daily (Adolescent Health Research Group 2008a). For more information see the Youth 2000 website.
Publications
Related websites
Page last updated: 27 July 2010
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