The World Health Organization on Wednesday released new global estimates showing that one in four adolescents worldwide reported not getting at least 60 minutes of physical activity on any day in the previous week.
That amounts to some 240 million young people ages 11 to 17 who reported not completing at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity on a single day, according to the agency. On average, adolescents reported being active on just 2.7 days a week, and 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 since 2010, the World Health Organization said. Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers, making it critical to help young people develop active habits early in life, according to the agency.
“For 15 years, the world has made almost no progress in getting young people moving, and girls are being left furthest behind,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “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.”
According to the report, “A generation missing out: Global trends in adolescent physical activity, 2010-2025,” 86% of adolescents reported fewer than seven active days in 2025, a figure that has not changed since 2010. No country is on track to meet the global target of a 15% relative reduction in physical inactivity by 2030, the report said.
Without accelerated action, adolescent inactivity is projected to remain largely unchanged for the rest of the decade, the report warns. The study draws on 389 population-based surveys from 140 countries and territories, involving more than 3.2 million adolescents.
The gender gap remains persistent, according to the World Health Organization. Some 28% of girls reported no active days, compared with 22% of boys, while 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, the agency said. Differences between countries were also large. In some, just 4% of adolescents reported no active days; in others, the figure exceeded 40%. The report did not name those countries.
There is no single explanation for the lack of progress, the World Health Organization said. 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 shape adolescents’ opportunities to be active.
The agency called for stronger action across the education, transport, urban planning, sport and health sectors. It also called for efforts to tackle the barriers faced by girls, including promoting physical activity in schools and investing in safe walking and cycling routes.