According to new global estimates released by the World Health Organization (WHO), developed with consultancy support from ºìÐÓÊÓƵ’s Dr Luiza Ricardo, this amounts to some 240 million young people aged 11–17 years who reported not completing at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity on any day in the previous week.
On average, adolescents reported being active for just 2.7 days a week, while only 14% reported being active on all seven days.
The findings point to a lack of global progress over the past 15 years, with levels of physical activity among adolescents virtually unchanged during this time.
Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Helping young people develop active habits early in life is critical to protecting their health and reducing the global burden of these diseases.
“For 15 years, the world has made almost no progress in getting young people moving, and girls are being left furthest behind,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The answer is not to tell adolescents to try harder. It is to build schools, streets and communities where moving, playing and being active is safe, easy and normal.”
The new study, published in The Lancet Global Health, draws on 389 population-based surveys from 140 countries and territories, involving more than 3.2 million adolescents.
The gender gap in adolescent physical activity levels remains strikingly persistent. Twenty-eight per cent of girls reported no active days, compared with 22% of boys. Only 11% of girls reported being active every day, compared with 17% of boys. Girls were less active than boys in almost every country and every WHO Region.
There were also stark differences between countries. In some, just 4% of adolescents reported no active days. In others, the figure exceeded 40%.
Dr Luiza Ricardo, Lecturer in Physical Activity and Public Health from the , said: "Global surveillance and monitoring are essential to understand how physically active young people are around the world and whether we are making progress over time. This data provides an important evidence base for governments, schools and public health organisations to develop policies and interventions that support active lifestyles among adolescents.
“The findings also highlight persistent gender inequalities, which speaks to my main area of research, with girls remaining less active than boys in many settings, reinforcing the need for targeted actions that create more opportunities and supportive environments for girls to be physically active around the world."
There is no single explanation for the lack of global progress. Physical activity is shaped by where adolescents live, learn, travel and spend their free time. Transport patterns, access to safe public spaces, opportunities for safe walking and cycling, school environments, affordability, social norms and increasingly screen-based lifestyles can all influence adolescents’ opportunities to be active.
The challenge is not simply to persuade adolescents to move more. It is to create environments that make being active a normal and easy part of growing up. WHO is calling for stronger action across the education, transport, urban planning, sport and health sectors, alongside efforts to address the multiple barriers faced by girls.
Countries need policies that make physical activity an easy, safe and accessible part of everyday life. Promoting physical activity in schools, investing in safe walking and cycling routes, and creating more active communities can give young people more opportunities to move, play and be active in their everyday lives.