Bolton Overview

31.2% inactive, 10.6% fairly active, 57.3% active

The latest Active Lives Release, May 2019/20, has seen a significant increase (5.3%) in the inactive population in Bolton in the last 12 months. Bolton has seen the percentage of people moving, active for at least 30 minutes a week, decrease by 3.0% since Active Lives began (November 2015/16) in comparison Greater Manchester as a whole has increased the moving population by 0.5% in the same time period.

When this latest release is combined with activity data on children and young people, 180,700 Bolton residents are moving.

Find out more about activity levels of children and young people in Bolton here.

Inactivity Across Demographics

The largest inactivity gap amongst adults in Bolton is the disability gap with a 24.4% gap, the smallest is the gender gap with a 5.8% gap. 

0.4% Gender Gap increase since Nov 15/16

The inactivity gender gap in Bolton is 5.8%, however, the gap has inverted with women now having lower inactivity rates than men. The change has been driven by an increase in male inactivity (+8.6%) and a decrease in female inactivity (-2.6%).

18.5% Age gap decrease since Nov 15/16

The inactivity age gap in Bolton is 16.6%. This change is a result of a large increase in inactivity amongst 16 to 34 year olds (+13.8%) and declining inactivity amongst the over 75's (-4.7%).

3.2% Socio-economic gap increase since Nov 15/16

The inactivity socio-economic gap in Bolton is 21.6%. This change is due to increasing inactivity amongst all socio-economic groups, however, it has risen faster amongst lower social groups (+3.8%), NS SEC 6-8, than higher social groups (+0.6%), NS SEC 1-2.

5.8% Disability gap increase since Nov 15/16

The inactivity disability gap in Bolton is 24.4%. Inactivity has risen amongst both those with a long term limiting disability and those without. However the rate of increase has been much greater amongst those with a long term limiting disability (+8.2%) than in those without a long term limiting disability (+2.4%).

Overall, the highest levels of inactivity in Bolton are amongst those with disabilities (51.2%), over 75's (45.3%) and low socio-economic groups (42.3%). The lowest levels of inactivity are amongst high socio-economic groups (20.7%), Other ethnic groups (25.7%) and those with no long term limiting disabilities (26.8%).

Bolton inactivity by demographic