Public leisure centres across England, that report on Sport England’s Moving Communities platform, are showing encouraging signs of progress in tackling inequalities according to the latest Moving Communities Impact Report.
Drawing on participation data from 529 facilities across 183 local authorities, the report shows encouraging signs of progress in tackling inequalities. Notably, participation among residents living in the most deprived areas of England (IMD 1–2) has continued to increase, accounting for 16% of all visits. However, this is still some way short of closing the gap to the least deprived areas (IMD 9-10) which account for 25% of visits.
The report also shows an uptick in participation among every age group of adults over 55, reflecting the growing acknowledgement of activity’s role in increasing healthy lifespan. This shift carries additional social value benefits as older adults experience greater wellbeing and health-related gains from being active. Their increased participation contributed to a rise in the average social value generated per participant, up from £237 to £242 between 2023/24 and 2024/25, with total estimated social value reaching £3.63 billion for England’s public leisure centres between April 2024 and March 2025.
“At a time when the importance of health, wellbeing, and community connection has never been clearer, Moving Communities continues to shine a light on how public leisure facilities serve communities and drive significant social value,” said Lisa Dodd-Mayne, Executive Director of Place at Sport England.
“This year’s findings show real resilience across the public leisure sector. These are vital local assets that bring communities together, improve wellbeing and deliver value for money. The continued commitment to this important service from local authorities and operators has driven real progress in showcasing the industry’s inclusive, welcoming, and sustainable services, but there is still more we can collectively do to reach more deprived groups.”
Overall, the report signals a mature, data-driven and socially valuable public leisure system that has moved from ‘recovery mode’ post-pandemic, into a more stable period of ‘resilient delivery’. This is illustrated by a stabilising of the average number of unique users per site, up by less than 1% to 14,166.
Of that figure, 53% of users are female, contrasting national figures for those living Active Lives overall, which showed 61% of women doing more than 150 minutes of activity a week, compared to 66% of men.
With these figures combined, Moving Communities’ Impact Report shows how public facilities are helping to deliver the goals of Sport England’s Uniting the Movement strategy, focused on tackling inequalities in physical activity.
Find out more by reading the full report here.
Ends
Notes to Editors
For further details, full access to the report and interview opportunities, please contact Kendall at [email protected]
About Moving Communities:
Moving Communities combines the expertise of Sport England with partners including Active Insight, the Sport Industry Research Group at Sheffield Hallam University, Loughborough University, 4Global, and Right Directions, who deliver Quest. Together, Moving Communities provides live data based on the largest dataset ever gathered for the local authority leisure sector.
