One in four teenagers worldwide reported no physical activity on any day of the week in 2025, according to a new World Health Organization study published in The Lancet Global Health.
The study analyzed 389 surveys covering 3.2 million adolescents aged 11 to 17 across 140 countries. It found that 24.9 percent of young people—about 240 million—had zero active days in the previous week. Only 14 percent reported being active every day, with the global average at 2.7 active days per week.
Girls lagged significantly behind boys in nearly every country measured. Twenty-eight percent of girls reported no active days, compared with 22 percent of boys. Only 11 percent of girls were active daily, versus 17 percent of boys. Girls averaged 2.4 active days per week against 3 for boys.
The percentage of adolescents reporting fewer than seven active days per week has not changed since 2010. No country is on track to meet the 2030 global target of reducing physical inactivity by 15 percent from 2010 levels, the study found.
The WHO warned that physical inactivity is a high-risk factor for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. "For 15 years, no progress has been recorded on a global scale to encourage young people to be physically active, and girls are particularly left behind," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The organization identified transport, access to safe public spaces, safe walking and cycling, school environments, cost, social perceptions and screen-based lifestyles as factors affecting activity levels. "The solution is not to tell teenagers to try harder," Tedros said. "It is mainly about ensuring that schools, streets and neighborhoods are places where physical activity, play and activity are safe, easy and obvious."
Significant differences existed between countries. In Namibia, Nepal and the Philippines, 40 percent of adolescents reported no activity on any day, while in Serbia and Bangladesh more than 30 percent reported daily activity. Canada, Finland and Kazakhstan had particularly many active teenagers, while Namibia and Zimbabwe had the fewest. Germany was neither particularly sporty nor unsporty.
Etienne Krug, director of the WHO Department of Health Determinants, said progress had stalled over the last 15 years and the world was far from the 2030 target. Leanne Riley, head of the WHO unit for surveillance of noncommunicable diseases, said "more of the same will not solve this problem."
