One in four teenagers worldwide did not play sport for even a single day

The World Health Organization has published a report on adolescent physical activity built on an extensive database: over 3.2 million young people surveyed in 140 countries. The main finding is stark: almost a quarter of 11- to 17-year-olds, around 25%, were found to be completely inactive in the seven days preceding the survey, with not a single day of recorded physical movement.

This is an aggregate figure on a global scale, built through surveys conducted in a very broad number of countries, a feature that strengthens its representativeness but does not allow, based on what has been disclosed so far, for specific differences to be distinguished between geographical areas, narrower age brackets within the 11-17 cohort, or between genders.

The report comes from an international health institution and falls within the series of periodic snapshots that the WHO carries out on habits and behaviors linked to youth health. The figure on the total absence of weekly movement — almost one in four adolescents worldwide — describes a condition of complete inactivity, not a mere reduction relative to recommended standards, and it is on this extreme threshold that the measurement made public by the organization focuses.

The available sources do not specify further methodological details on data collection in the 140 countries involved, nor do they provide a comparison with previous surveys that would make it possible to establish whether the measured share represents a worsening, an improvement, or substantial stability compared to the past. There is also, as of this publication, no indication whatsoever regarding the causes of this widespread immobility or the differences among the 140 countries involved in the survey.

What remains, as of the current state of the publication, is this single figure: almost a quarter of the world’s adolescent population surveyed in the study did not move physically for an entire week, out of a base of more than 3.2 million young people consulted in 140 different countries.