Mean active days (adolescents)

Physical activity during adolescence supports current and future physical and mental health and helps prevent noncommunicable diseases. The number of active days per week is the most widely collected measure of adolescent physical activity.

Mean number of active days per week among adolescents aged 11–17 years (range 0 to 7 days).

An active day is a day on which an adolescent reports at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).

An active day is a day on which an adolescent reports at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).

Sex, age

Self-reported physical activity, in response to the following survey question or similar: “During the past 7 days, on how many days were you physically active for a total of at least 60 min per day?”, with answers from 0 to 7 days.

Data were from population-based surveys that collected self-reported number of active days in the past week among adolescents aged 11–17 years. Most data were from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study or were global school-based student health surveys. Bayesian hierarchical ordinal regression models were used to estimate the distribution of active days per week and mean active days per week, by sex, age, country, and year. Separate models were fitted for boys and girls. The model borrows information within regions through country, region and survey random effects, so estimates are available for countries, ages and years without data. Country estimates are published only if survey data were included for the country.

Full details are available in: Strain T, Flaxman SR, Ricardo LIC, et al, and the Country Data Author Group. National, regional, and global trends in adolescent physical activity from 2010 to 2025: a pooled analysis of 389 surveys with 3·2 million participants from 140 countries. Lancet Glob Health 2026; published online 4 November 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langlo.2026.104099

Global estimates as well as estimates for WHO regions and World Bank income groups were produced. Country estimates were combined for each group, weighting them by population of adolescents aged 11 to 17 years in each country. Estimates for all countries, including those with no survey data, were used to make regional and global estimates. For World Bank income groups, groupings for the year 2025 were used, since 2025 was the final estimation year.

Days per week

3 years

3–5 years

ncdestimates@who.int

NCD estimates

3207

Data coverage was incomplete, with no data included for 55 countries. Data were sparse in low-income countries. Most data were derived from school-based surveys, and school-going adolescents may differ from the general population where school attendance is low. In 25 of 140 countries with data included, attendance in lower-secondary school was below 80%. Few data sources covered the full 11–17 age range. Further, in countries where school leaving occurs at younger ages, age patterns may reflect selection bias rather than true age patterns. For these reasons, results on age patterns should be interpreted with caution.