An active New Year’s resolution for Canadian adults?

The start of the New Year offers a chance to break old habits, form new ones and set meaningful goals. For adults resolving to become more active this year, a study looked at how many Canadians were meeting the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in the years leading up to the pandemic and explored some of the underlying factors on why some Canadians may not be meeting the guidelines.

Less than half of Canadian adults meet the recommended guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity

According to data drawn from the Canadian Health Measures Survey in the decade leading up to the pandemic, less than half (45%) of Canadian adults met the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Men were more likely to meet the guidelines than women in every age group.

Perhaps not surprisingly, young adults aged 18 to 34 years were most likely to be active, with just under two-thirds (65%) of men and just over half (53%) of women meeting the recommended guidelines. This rate falls with age and was lowest among older Canadians, with one-quarter (25%) of men and just over one-fifth (21%) of women aged 65 years and older meeting 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Education plays a role in meeting physical activity guidelines

Canadian adults with a post-secondary or secondary degree were much more likely to meet 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than those who had not graduated from high school.

In the years leading up to the pandemic, approximately half of men with a post-secondary (52%) or secondary (49%) degree met the guidelines, compared with two-fifths of women (40% and 39%, respectively).

Conversely, one-third (33%) of men and just over one-fifth (22%) of women who had not graduated from high school met the guidelines.

Health considerations

Canadian adults self-reporting good, very good or excellent physical health were almost twice as likely to meet 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than those reporting poor or fair health.

Just over half (51%) of men reported having good, very good or excellent physical health, compared with 40% of women. By way of comparison, over one in four men (28%) and one in five women (22%) reporting fair or poor health met the guidelines.

Those reporting good, very good or excellent mental health (49% for men; 39% for women) were also more likely to meet the physical activity guidelines than those who reported having fair or poor health (46% for men; 36% for women), but the gap was not nearly as large.

Other factors that lowered the likelihood of meeting the activity guidelines include having a chronic condition, smoking or having obesity.

Parents of young children less active than adults with no children

Adult men (54%) and women (45%) with no spouse or children were by far the most likely to meet 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in the groups studied.

Although parenthood is a life stage in which finding time to participate in physical activity may be especially difficult, Canadian adults in a dual-parent family were slightly more likely to meet the guidelines than adults with a spouse and no children.

According to the 2021 Census, there were 1.3 million mothers in one-parent families and 383,670 fathers in one-parent families in Canada. 

Single mothers were the least likely to meet the physical guidelines in the decade leading up to the pandemic, with just over one-quarter (28%) doing so. By way of comparison, almost half (49%) of single fathers met the guidelines.

Time, family commitments and fatigue all factors when meeting activity guidelines, especially among women

The study found that, overall, men were more likely (+10.8 percentage points) to meet the physical activity guidelines than women. This difference persisted regardless of sociodemographic characteristics and was especially pronounced among 35- to 49-year-olds.

What explains this gender gap in meeting the physical activity guidelines?

Time-use surveys have long shown that women spend more time doing unpaid work than men, including childcare and household chores (2.7 hours per day among women compared with 1.9 hours per day among men), leaving less time for physical activity for women.

Moreover, Canadian women report feeling more time stressed than men, regardless of the workday length or presence of children.

Finally, an aging population means that middle-aged adults, often women, are often simultaneously caring for children and aging parents. In 2022, more than half of women aged 15 and older were providing care to children or care-dependent adults (either paid or unpaid), and women were more likely than men to report feeling tired, worried or anxious about this work. 

Fatigue from physically demanding jobs may also limit the energy available to pursue activity during leisure time, and time-use surveys have reported that women are less likely than men to choose active pursuits when they do have free time.

To explore this topic, see the full report: Intersecting risk factors for physical inactivity among Canadian adults.