One in four teenagers worldwide does not reach 1 hour of physical activity on any day
A Lancet Global Health study of 3.2 million young people in 140 countries shows a picture unchanged for 15 years and places Brazil among the widest gaps between boys and girls.
Translated from the Portuguese original by the Panorama newsroom. Read in Portuguese
Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.
About 240 million adolescents, one in four worldwide, do not get 60 minutes of physical activity on any day of the week, according to a study published in The Lancet Global Health and reported by g1. The research gathered data on 3.2 million young people aged 11 to 17 in 140 countries.
According to the authors, activity levels have barely changed over the past 15 years, despite global campaigns. In 2025, adolescents had on average 2.7 days per week with at least one hour of moderate to vigorous exercise, and only 13.9% met that mark on all seven days. The World Health Organization recommends 60 minutes a day, and no country is on track to meet the inactivity reduction target set for 2030.
Girls are at a disadvantage in every region: 28.4% of them had no active day in the week, compared with 21.7% of boys. Brazil is among four countries, alongside Egypt, Kenya and South Korea, where this gap was at least 15 percentage points. In Brazil, boys reported on average 1.1 to 1.2 more active days per week.
The study also points to a decline in activity with age, especially among girls, whose global average falls from 2.6 active days at age 11 to 2.2 at 17. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 22.7% of adolescents recorded no active day.
The researchers link the differences to gender norms, safety concerns and a lack of suitable spaces, programs and infrastructure, and believe that actions focused only on individual behavior are unlikely to reduce these inequalities.