On May 7th, 2024, ParticipACTION released the 2024 ParticipACTION Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. The 16th edition of the Report Card, Rallying for Resilience: Keeping Children and Youth Active in a Changing Climate, provided Canada with a D+ in overall physical activity, indicating that only 39% of children and youth in Canada met the recommendation of at least 60 minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
The Report Card is the most comprehensive assessment of children’s physical activity in Canada, synthesizing data from multiple sources to assign evidence-informed grades across 14 indicators. The 2024 Report Card highlights how the current and impending effects of climate change could be particularly harmful for children and youth’s physical activity, and how we can help kids face adversity, move more and build resilience. Unfavourable weather and climate conditions such as heatwaves, heavy rain and smoke-filled air can lead to recesses and outdoor sport and recreation activities being cancelled, and more time spent indoors being sedentary with increased exposure to screens.
Physical activity can help mitigate the negative health impacts of climate change. Coordinated efforts from multiple sectors and people are needed to get and keep children and youth physically active in a changing climate – inside and outside, rain or shine.
Read the Report Card here.
