Adult lifestyle (National Survey for Wales): January to March 2021

The National Survey 2020-21 was adapted due to the coronavirus pandemic (with telephone interviews replacing face-to-face interviews and some changes to content). The final quarter of 2020-21 (January to March 2021) was the first quarter when questions were asked for all five healthy lifestyle behaviours, and these results are reported here.

The results for health-related lifestyle should not be compared with results from previous editions of the National Survey for Wales due to the change in survey mode (and, in some cases, the need to adapt questions). These topics can be sensitive to such changes. We plan to look at this in more detail later in the year.

Main points

• 14% of adults reported that they currently smoked.
• 17% of adults reported that they drank more than the weekly guidelines (that is, average weekly alcohol consumption above 14 units).
• 31% of adults reported that they ate at least 5 portions of fruit or vegetables the previous day.
• 51% of adults reported that they had been active for at least 150 minutes in the previous week.
• 37% of adults reported a healthy weight.
• 7% of adults reported following fewer than 2 of the 5 healthy behaviours.