Sport England is to invest £3m in the popular Parkrun movement, with a focus on helping more women and people from lower socio-economic groups to get active.

Parkrun events are free to enter and are organised by volunteers, with hundreds events taking place across the country every week.

The funding – secured over three years – will support the creation of 200 new events across England.

Parkrun currently has more than 1.8 million registered participants.

Our investment will focus on the key areas of increasing the number of women and girls who take part, as well as increasing participation from lower socio-economic groups – two major targets in our strategy Towards an Active Nation," said Sport England CEO Tim Hollingsworth.

“We know from our research that cost and a lack of local opportunities are real barriers in stopping people being more active, and what Parkrun does brilliantly is offer free, community-based events for all abilities.

Launched in 2004, Parkrun has organised 125,436 events in 584 locations over the past 14 years.

“This is an endorsement of the strides we have taken to create a model that empowers communities to implement a permanent mixed gender, multi-generational health intervention that appeals to a broad cross-section of society, particularly those for whom physical activity and volunteering is not the norm,” said Parkrun CEO Nick Pearson.