ACCORDING to Sport England’s latest Active People Survey, the number of people regularly playing sport in this country has increased again.

That is to say, 15.74million people aged 16 and over play at least 30 minutes of sport at a moderate intensity level once a week between October 2014 and September 2015.

The North West as a whole has experienced an increase since the Active People Survey started monitoring participation in 2005, but that can’t be said for Warrington.

The town’s participation peaked at 42.1 per cent between October 2012 and 2013 but has since fallen to 36.1 per cent, although this is a slight increase on last year.

Nationally, there was a huge pat on the back for those behind the This Girl Can campaign, with the number of women regularly playing sport up by 148,700.

That figure contributes to an overall increase of 245,000 between October 2014 and September 2015, and the campaign’s approach of focusing on the consumer is said to have had a positive impact.

Sport England says the results support the need to think about target audiences as individual consumers in a bid to understand their motivations and the things that usually get in the way of them taking part in sport.

With that in mind, activities such as keep fit and gym and boxing – largely via fitness classes – have experienced a sharp rise in numbers.

An influx of low-price gyms takes the number of people using them in the country to nearly a decade high; that’s up more than 250,000 participants since the last survey and 6.8million overall.

Sport England chief executive Jennie Price said: “It’s good news more women are playing sport, and driving an overall increase in the numbers.

“It’s particularly great to see This Girl Can is making a real difference. That’s because we’ve really focused on what drives women’s attitudes and behaviours.

“If we’re to see a further step change in the total number of people playing sport, we need to take a similar, consumer-focused approach in areas where the figures are stubbornly low, like disability and lower socio-economic groups.”

But it’s not all good news. Despite a continued increase since London hosted the Olympic Games in 2012, some sports are down on numbers more recently.

I reported last year on the decline in the number of people swimming. This trend continues, but has slowed.

However, football was down in adult participants by 66,600 according to the survey this year, which could reflect a growing frustration at the lack of investment in the grassroots game.