The table below shows the number of people millions taking part in five different physical activities between 2001 and 2009

The table compares how many people engaged in different types of physical activities during the eight-year period.

Generally, most of activities experienced an upward trend with the exception of tennis.

The biggest change has been seen in the aerobics, with the growth of 159% throughout the eight-year period. More specifically, the number of people who took part in this activity doubled, increasing from 1.1million to 2.4 million. Next comes to running, which showed a growth rate of 89%, although it ranked the second least popular sports in three different times (0.9, 1.1 and 1.7 million respectively).

Walking was the most prevalent physical activity. There were 6.8 million people did walking in 2009 compared to 4.5 million in 2001, showing a growth of 43%. Interestingly, swimming was the only sports indicating a stable figure of 2.1million throughout the same period. Lastly, fewer people took part in tennis, reducing from 0.9 million to 0.7 million (a reduction of 23%)

In brief, it can be seen that walking by far was the most popular sports; nevertheless, more and more people showed a strong interest in aerobics and running; meanwhile, tennis lost its popularity.