Around 25 pc of teens worldwide had no physically activity in a week in 2025 Study

New Delhi, Nov 4 (PTI) One in four teenagers worldwide, or around 240 million, reported no active days in a week, with global adolescent physical activity levels remaining persistently low over the previous 15 years, according to a global analysis of self-reported physical activity published in The Lancet Global Health journal.

    In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that adolescents get an average of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day.

    It also set a target of reducing levels of physical inactivity in adults and adolescents by 10 per cent by 2025 and 15 per cent by 2030, compared to the 2010 baseline.

    Researchers, including those from the UK's University of Edinburgh, combined data from 389 surveys of 3.2 million adolescents aged 11-17 across 140 countries, covering 59 per cent of the global adolescent population.

    In 2025, adolescents worldwide averaged just 2.7 active days per week, with only 14 per cent active every day, they estimated. Girls averaged fewer active days per week compared to boys globally.

    Further, the team found no change in physical inactivity between 2010 and 2025, and "no country is on track to meet the 2030 global target".

    Girls were less active than boys overall -- more reported inactive days (28 per cent vs 22 per cent), fewer were active daily (11 per cent vs 17 per cent), and their weekly average was lower (2.4 vs 3.0 days). The gap held across all regions of the world.

    Most low- and middle-income regions were found to have more adolescents with zero active days and lower averages overall, while high-income western, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and East Asia and the Pacific regions had fewer adolescents with zero to two active days, more with three or more active days, and small gains over time.

    The authors cited limitations in data coverage, which remained incomplete as no data was included for 55 countries, such as India where 18 per cent of the global adolescent population resides. Data were sparse in low-income countries, they said.

    The study updates national, regional, and global estimates of adolescent physical activity from 2010 to 2025, including how activity is spread across the week and progress towards the 2030 target, the researchers said.

    They added the findings call for an accelerated action by all governments with targeted policies tailored to local context that reach the whole population while prioritising engaging the least active adolescents.

    For example, everyday places, such as schools and neighbourhoods, can be made better for being active, the team said.

    They also emphasised the need for gender-responsive programmes that tackle the systemic barriers behind girls' lower activity, including restrictive gender norms, safety concerns and a lack of suitable activities.

    The estimates in the study will be adopted as official WHO statistics upon publication, the authors said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)