WARRINGTON residents are some of the most active people in the country according to new research.

Sport England found that here in Warrington people do more exercise each week than in any other town in the north west.

More than 43 per cent of adults do at least 30 minutes of sport a week.

And the town’s residents were ranked 36th most active in the country.

Swimming was revealed as the country’s favourite sport by far, followed by athletics, cycling and football.

But boxing, netball and table tennis are all rising stars after they grew significantly in popularity over the past 10 years.

The number of youngsters taking part in sport has also increased, with more than 42 per cent of 14 to 16-year-olds in the town getting active for at least 30 minutes per week.

LiveWire, the company which runs many of Warrington's sports activities and leisure centres, welcomed the news.

Managing director Emma Hutchinson said: “It’s fantastic that Warrington has topped the regional chart for the first time following significant increases in adult participation.

“This builds on the consistently strong performance we have seen in participation among young people for some time.

“Becoming the most active local authority in the region was one of the headline aims of our last business plan, and it is testament to the hard work of staff at LiveWire and our partner organisations to have achieved this.”

The research also found that people from ethnic minorities are more likely to be active than residents from a white British background.

And Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign was credited with a surge in the number of women exercising regularly.

LiveWire ran its own initiative to get girls involved in activities like indoor wall climbing, archery, golf, tennis, trampolining and ladies only boxing.

Laura Akers was one of the women who took part in LiveWire's This Girl Can project and said: “It gave me opportunities to try sports that I would never have considered before such as water polo, cricket, tennis, archery and horse riding.

"It gave me the confidence to try new things and since taking part, I now lead a much more active lifestyle."