One in Four Adolescents Had No Active Day Last Week, and the Figure Has Not Moved Since 2010, WHO Says

About 240 million adolescents, one in four of the world's 11 to 17 year olds, did not manage a single day with 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity in the week before they were surveyed. The World Health Organization published the estimate on Wednesday alongside a study in The Lancet Global Health, and the finding it chose to lead on was not the number but the trend: fifteen years of campaigns, school programmes and targets have left adolescent activity levels virtually unchanged since 2010.

The study, led by Tessa Strain and colleagues, pooled 389 population surveys from 140 countries and territories, covering more than 3.2 million adolescents, and it is the largest exercise of its kind. On average, young people were active on 2.7 days a week. Only 14 percent were active every day.

How inactive are teenagers around the world?

The spread between countries is wide. In some, 4 percent of adolescents reported no active day; in others the share was above 40 percent. AFP's report, carried by the Jamaica Observer, named Namibia, Nepal and the Philippines among the countries where about four in ten reported no active day, while in Bangladesh and Serbia more than 30 percent reported daily activity. Euronews reported that Finland, Canada and Serbia topped the table at 4.5 to 4.8 active days a week, with Cambodia, Jordan and Madagascar lowest at 1.7 to 1.9, and that wealthier regions averaged around four active days against about two in lower and middle income regions. The surveys cover roughly 59 percent of the world's adolescent population, so the global figure is an estimate built on those countries with data.

Why are girls less active than boys?

Girls were less active than boys in almost every country and every WHO region. Twenty-eight percent of girls reported no active day against 22 percent of boys, and 11 percent of girls were active daily against 17 percent of boys. Euronews put the weekly averages at three days for boys and 2.4 for girls, with the gap widening as girls get older. WHO's director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said girls were being left furthest behind and that the answer is not to tell adolescents to try harder. The agency points instead at the environment: transport patterns, safe places to walk and cycle, school design, cost, social norms and screen-centred daily life.

What is the health risk, and what does WHO want done?

Physical inactivity is a recognised risk factor for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers, and habits set in adolescence tend to carry into adult life. The global target agreed by member states was a 15 percent relative reduction in physical inactivity between 2010 and 2030; UN News reported that no country is on track to meet it. WHO's recommendations are deliberately unglamorous: safer walking and cycling routes, more activity built into the school day, sports provision that girls actually use, and planning rules that treat play space as infrastructure.

This article is reporting on a population study, not advice for any individual. A teenager's activity, especially where there is a health condition, injury or disordered eating in the picture, is a matter for the young person, their family and a clinician who knows their history. The 60-minute figure is a public health guideline, not a prescription.

The 2030 target is four years away and the curve is flat. The next data point will show whether the countries that have rebuilt school sport and active travel since the pandemic have moved the number at all, or whether a generation that the WHO describes as missing out will simply become the adults in the next inactivity report.