This week the CDC released a “Quickstat” comparing the percentage of adults over 25 reporting regular recreational physical activity of at last 30 minutes of a moderate level at least five times a week or 20 minutes of vigorous activity three times a week. We don’t have the data by income or social class but we are given it by a reasonable proxy, educational level. Here is the comparison between 1997 and 2007, adjusted for a standard population:
Over both time periods you can see that the proportion of adult Americans who exercised for pleasure was directly related to educational level: the higher your educational level (which is correlated with income), the more likely a person was to engage in leisure-time physical activity. Not a surprise. But we also see something else. The gap widened, with the highest educational level having an increased proportion while each of the lower levels decreasing.
If you completed college you were three times as likely to have exercised than if you had not completed high school.