No matter the ethnical background, children enjoy taking part in sport equally across the board. Apparently boys are slightly more active than girls but only to a marginal degree. Among children aged 5 to 10 in England, swimming is the favorite sport, followed by football. This shifts as they grow older and children between the age of 11 and 15 favor football over swimming. Children in Northern Ireland also stated swimming and football to be their favorite sport, both on a monthly as well as on an annual basis.
Children tend to favour sports that are competitive, or perhaps most types of sport just follow a competitive nature. Other than football, many types are ball sports such as tennis, rugby, dodgeball or netball. Others are physical activities such as cycling, skateboarding, dancing or fishing. The importance of sport and physical activity for children grows as the modern food industry led to increased consumption of processed foods, high in fats and sugars, causing a rise in child obesity in the UK over the past 30 years of over 300 percent.
