Baking is on the rise, gardening is growing and millions of thrill seekers are doing extreme sports, reveals comprehensive report on the nation’s leisure activities.
Parenting on Female First
In the past baking, knitting and gardening were seen by many as the domain of the elderly but according to a new report released today these traditional pastimes are growing in popularity with all ages and other retro activities are making a comeback.
Despite the high profile of football in this country, more people are regularly reading, cooking and gardening. And, we’re twice as likely to spend the majority of our leisure time swimming than playing footie.
But that doesn’t mean we’re all putting our feet up. Far from it, with a new generation of thrill seekers either having tried more extreme leisure pursuits, such as abseiling, rock climbing and quad biking, or wanting to have a go at activities like paragliding or free running.
The Mars Milk Nation at Play report, which provides a comprehensive overview of exactly what we’re getting up to in our spare time and how this is changing over time, shows that the average person now has three leisure activities they do regularly, spending around £40 a month on them.
Most of us start the week intending to spend at least two hours on our favourite sports or hobbies but tiredness and cost regularly put paid to our good intentions.
Almost half of us regularly do gardening and one in ten 16 to 34 year olds would like to, while almost as many 16 to 24 year olds as over 55 year olds are now regularly knitting and as many under 35 year olds are regularly baking as over 45 year olds.
But some traditional activities are dying out, with only one in five people now regularly playing board games or doing jigsaw puzzles, whilst others are close to extinction, with less than one in 30 collecting stamps.
So why are some activities on the way in while others are most definitely on the way out? Could it be something to do with the current trend for TV shows such as the Great British Bake Off and Kirstie's Homemade Britain?
And which hereditary hobbies and sporting interests are being passed down from generation to generation? Zoe Salmon finds out.
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