One in four adolescents worldwide – or around 240 million young people – reported not being active on any day of the week in 2025, according to a new global study.
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The global average was 2.7 active days per week, unchanged between 2010 and 2025, while only 14% – one in seven – were active daily.
The study, published in The Lancet Global Health, draws 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 in which an adolescent reported engaging in 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 by 15% between 2010 and 2030 the percentage of adolescents who fail to achieve 60 minutes of activity over the seven days of the week. However, the report finds that no county or region is on track to achieve such a goal.
The report reveals disparities between countries and genders.
Globally, boys reported significantly higher activity levels than girls in 2025, with an average of three days of activity per week compared to 2.4 for girls. Girls’ activity decreases as they grow up, widening the gap with boys.
Big geographical differences
The report also reveals that while all countries are behind the target, some regions are doing better than others.
Adolescents in wealthier regions – Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, and high-income Western countries – averaged four days of activity, with 6.9 to 7.7 percent reporting no activity.
In contrast, predominantly low- and middle-income regions – such as Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, Oceania, South and Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa – had on average about two active days per week, with 22.7% to 33.1% of adolescents being completely inactive.
The most active adolescents were in Finland, Canada and Serbia, with an average of 4.5 to 4.8 active days per week, while the least active were in Cambodia, Jordan and Madagascar, with an average of 1.7 to 1.9.
The authors argue that these geographic and income-based disparities are mainly due to structural factors: wealthier countries generally have a greater capacity to finance physical activity policies and build supporting infrastructure, such as open public spaces and safe walking or cycling networks.
The high prevalence of inactive youth shows that existing interventions fail to reach a substantial portion of the population, the authors note.
Adolescence is a crucial period for shaping lifelong health. Regular activity during these years supports both the body and mind, with benefits lasting into adulthood.
Governments need to act more quickly, they suggest, with policies tailored to local contexts that reach the entire population and prioritize the least active adolescents, for example by making schools and neighborhoods better places to be active.
The authors added that programs should also address the barriers that cause girls’ low activity, including restrictive gender norms, safety concerns and a lack of suitable activities.
Gn Health
