OpenActive is a community-led initiative in the sports and physical activity sector using open data to get people more active. It was initiated to help address one of Britain’s biggest public health challenges: the lack of physical activity and specifically, the difficulties in finding opportunities to take part in activities.
Sport England’s Active Lives survey in 2018 studies states that only 17.5% (1.2m) of children and young people are meeting the Chief Medical Officer guidelines of taking part in sport and physical activity for at least 60 minutes every day. And a corresponding adult survey shows that only six in 10 adults gained the health benefits from achieving 150+ minutes of activity a week. The lack of physical activity causes an estimated 37,000 premature deaths annually and costs the UK economy around £20bn per year.
Empowering people to make better and easier decisions around physical activity benefits the nation: general health and wellbeing is increased, strain on the health service is reduced, and the value of the sport and physical activity sector grows, boosting productivity.
Read about the project in more detail in our OpenActive case study