'Profound impact' of pandemic leads to major drop in youngsters exercising for just half an hour

Concerns have been raised over the pandemic’s ‘profound impact’ on the number of young people in Stockport taking any form of regular exercise.

A council report shows that nearly 40pc of young people report doing less than 30 minutes of activity per day on average over a week.

This figure, for the 2020/21 academic year, compares unfavourably with 2018/19, when the same measure stood at just over 27pc.

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In other words, that's a drop of more than 10pc in those who were active for at least half and hour on a typical day.

No meaningful results are available for 2019/20 due to the number of pandemic-related school closures.

However, the percentage of young people doing an average of 60 minutes exercise per day has also dropped from just shy of 46pc to 40pc.

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According to the report, the drop off has was more pronounced in Stockport than the Greater Manchester, regional and national averages.

“The pandemic therefore appears to have had a profound impact on young people’s activity levels in Stockport – more so than for the adult population as well as for young people, on average, in other areas," it reads.

This was picked up by Coun Shan Alexander when the findings