AROUND one in five people in West Dorset and Weymouth and Portland are exercising for less than 30 minutes a week, a new survey has revealed.

The Sport England Active Lives survey hopes to compile data on how active people are around the country.

Nationwide, 200,000 people completed the survey between November 2015 and November 2016, making it the biggest and most comprehensive survey of its kind.

The survey showed that the areas of Dorset generally falls in line, or slightly above, national trends.

However, Active Dorset has recognised that certain areas still have barriers to participation.

The survey shows that in West Dorset, 20.4 percent of respondents to the survey exercised for less than 30 minutes per week and 19 percent in Weymouth and Portland.

For England the rate is 22 percent.

Both areas are also above the national average for the percentage of people exercising for 150 minutes or more a week, the amount needed to be classes as active.

The percentage for England is 65.4 percent of people being classed as active while it is 66.6 percent in West Dorset and 72.4 percent in Weymouth and Portland.

In West Dorset 511 people completed the survey with 501 completing it in Weymouth and Portland.

For the Dorset Sports Partnership area 4,059 people filled out the survey, with 21.3 percent recording themselves as inactive and 65.3 percent recording themselves as active.

Martin Kimberley, chief executive of Active Dorset, said: “This is the first set of results from the Active Lives survey and as you say suggest that our county is reasonably active compared to national results, monitoring a trend over a few more surveys will build a fuller picture of participation levels.

“Although overall Dorset is reasonably active, we have many areas of very low activity.

"Often areas with greater levels of deprivation, or specific groups such as people with a disability have very many barriers to participation and we will be working to support accessible and appropriate provision of activity for these and other groups. Key strategic agencies in Dorset are all working together to bring about a cultural shift that will lead to a step change in levels of physical activity.

"The Sustainability and Transformation Plan that is county-wide and led by the Health and Wellbeing Boards and the Clinical commissioning Group includes physical activity as a fundamental element to achieving ‘prevention at scale’ which is a central to improving the delivery of services going forward."