One in four teenagers worldwide is not active on any day of the week and girls are falling furthest behind, a major new study finds.
One in four adolescents worldwide – around 240 million young people – reported not being active on any day of the week in 2025, according to a new global study.
The global average was 2.7 active days per week, unchanged between 2010 and 2025, while only 14% — one in seven — were active every day.
The study, published in The Lancet Global Health, drew on data from 389 surveys of 3.2 million adolescents aged 11 to 17 in 140 countries, covering 59% of the global adolescent population.
Researchers counted an active day as one on which an adolescent reported at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), whether at school, while commuting or during leisure time.
The WHO aims to reduce the percentage of adolescents who fail to achieve 60 minutes of activity on all seven days of the week by 15% between 2010 and 2030. However, the report found that no county or region is on track to meet such a target.
The report found disparities across different countries and genders.
Globally, boys reported significantly higher activity levels than girls in 2025, averaging three active days per week against 2.4 for girls. Girls’ activity falls as they grow older, widening the gap with boys.
Broad geographical differences
The report also found that, although every country is lagging behind the target, some regions fare better than others.
Adolescents in wealthier regions – Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, and High-Income Western nations – averaged four active days, with 6.9% to 7.7% reporting no activity at all.
The most active adolescents were in Finland, Canada and Serbia, averaging 4.5 to 4.8 active days per week, while the least active ones were in Cambodia, Jordan and Madagascar, averaging 1.7 to 1.9.
The authors said these geographic and income-based disparities are driven mainly by structural factors: wealthier countries generally have greater capacity to fund physical activity policies and to build supportive infrastructure, such as public open spaces and safe walking or cycling networks.
The high prevalence of inactive young people shows that existing interventions are failing to reach a substantial portion of the population, the authors noted.
Adolescence is a crucial period for shaping lifelong health. Regular activity in these years supports both body and mind, with benefits lasting into adulthood.
Governments need to act faster, they suggest, with policies tailored to local contexts that reach the whole population and prioritise the least active adolescents, for example by making schools and neighbourhoods better places to be active.
The authors added that programmes should also address the barriers behind girls’ lower activity, including restrictive gender norms, safety concerns and a lack of suitable activities.
Source: www.euronews.com
