Physical Activity

Participants in the BrainWaves Cohort study were asked “How often do you play sports, do exercise or other physical activities, not in school or college?”

The graphs show the distribution of responses to this question about their time spent on physical activities, and split by sex, on the first occasion that they completed the BrainWaves Cohort Study questionnaire.

The overall responses show that 64.1% of those responding took part in physical activities outside school once a week or more, and this was higher for males (76.9%) than for females (56.1%).

The BrainWaves Cohort Study has collected responses from over 24,000 people aged 16-18 in schools across the UK, over three time points in 2024 and 2025.