Ever wondered whether you live in a fitness capital or hotspot? Now you can find out thanks to a unique research study from health influencer Treated.com, and doctor Wayne Osborne, who have collaborated to reveal the top fitness regions of the UK.
Treated.com and Dr Wayne launched the research to calculate the area within the United Kingdom that has the highest concentration of regulated fitness facilities and amenities for adult men and women. In doing so, they unearthed a major string of results that also give the number of facilities per capita by type, such as the following:
– Privately owned fitness facilities and amenities
– Council run fitness facilities and amenities
– Independent fitness facilities and amenities
The study piece looked into the total number of establishments and amenities classified as fully functional for accommodating the needs of fitness and physical activity within the major built-up areas of the United Kingdom. The figures were cross examined by the exact population of each major area in the UK to calculate the density per 10,000 people.
The results below demonstrate which areas came out on top:
Table 1 illustrates the density per capita for major gyms that have private ownership, such as Virgin Active and Fitness First. The overall leader is Edinburgh, not through sheer volume of facilities but their ratio to the number of people that live there. Second was Greater London, which on paper should re recognised as the fitness capital for its wealth of facilities, however its booming population drags down the capita. Bristol performs surprisingly well in third place considering the moderate amount of facilities within the area.
Table 2 recognises the council run facilities made up of establishments with sports halls and swimming pools, which have been in decline for the past decade owing to the rise of big name gyms. In tis context, Liverpool comes out on top for having a marginally higher concentration of facilities per capita than second place Cardiff, also chased by Teeside with the third highest density for fitness facilities. All three areas are known for working class culture and this may explain the strong prevalence of leisure centre amenities here favoured over the major franchises seen in Table 1.
In Table 3 the research exposes the number of independent fitness facilities and amenities to determine that Sheffield is a clear leader in this sector. The results highlight that Sheffield has more than twice the density of fitness facilities per capita than any other area in the UK, quite a feat considering it doesn’t even reach the top five in terms of its population. Edinburgh and Bristol were hard to separate in second and third spots, respectively. Bournemouth is the lowest performing region of all with a mere four facilities open to the public.
To view the full findings for the Fitness Capital of UK study visit the Treated.com blog, where Dr Wayne Osborne provides his analysis on the relationship between keeping an active lifestyle and living healthily.
