A study of more than 60,000 adults also found those who are comfortably off and white were most likely to do exercise.
But the figures showed a fall in the number of young men taking part in activities such as cycling and running.
More than 33,000 women and 27,000 men over the age of 16 years were questioned as part of the Health Survey for England between 1997 and 2006.
Sport-promoting and health policy efforts should focus on these groups and try and expand participation
By the end of the study period men were around 10% more likely to regularly play sports than in 1997 while women were 20% more likely.
And the proportion attending regular gym or fitness classes rose from 17% to 19.2% among men and from 15.9% to 18.7% among women.
However, the researchers found the increase was not evenly spread over different age and socio-economic groups.
In general, people with higher incomes, car owners, those in generally good health and higher social classes were more likely to take part in sports.
The findings also showed that, particularly among men, white people were more likely to take exercise than other groups.
Those aged over 45 were 25% more likely to have undertaken sport over the period and there were also increases among women aged 30 to 44.
But men aged 16 to 29 were less likely to have taken part in popular sporting activities.