Contents
- Adult physical inactivity statistics: global prevalence and recent trends
- Adult physical inactivity statistics by sex and age
- Adult physical inactivity statistics by world region and income
- Adult physical inactivity statistics in the United States by race and place
- Adult physical inactivity statistics for U.S. adults aged 18–29
- Adult physical inactivity statistics in England by age, deprivation, and BMI
- Sources
Adult physical inactivity statistics: global prevalence and recent trends
Physical inactivity statistics describe populations that fall below a specified activity threshold. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines adult inactivity as not meeting its recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week. Its global estimates are age-standardized, rounded to whole percentages and based on self-reported data. The threshold and method matter: other sources in this article measure a different behavior, such as reporting no activity outside work in the past month, or use a lower weekly activity cut-off.
WHO’s summary report contains a date inconsistency in its headline. One sentence says that 31% of adults—equivalent to 1.8 billion people—were not meeting recommended activity levels “in 2020.” The report’s methods and figure captions identify its comparable estimate as being for 2022. The two statements should be read together: 31% and 1.8 billion are the figures printed in the date-conflicted headline, while 2022 is the estimate year indicated elsewhere in the report. WHO also reports that, in 32 countries, inactivity exceeded 40%; in 10 countries, over half of adults did not meet its global guidelines. Source: WHO, Global levels of physical inactivity in adults: off track for 2030
The report’s trend section describes a rise in global adult inactivity from 26% in 2010 to 31% in 2022. It projects that the rate could reach 35% by 2030 if the observed trend continues. That is a conditional projection, not a measured future outcome. The same projection gives 38% for women and 32% for men by 2030. WHO’s report therefore combines observed historical estimates with a scenario that depends on the trend persisting; those categories should not be conflated. Source: WHO, Global levels of physical inactivity in adults: off track for 2030
Adult physical inactivity statistics by sex and age
For 2022, WHO reports that 34% of women and 29% of men worldwide fell short of its physical-activity recommendations. The difference between women and men exceeded 10 percentage points in 61 countries, which the report describes as 31% of countries. Across the WHO regions, the reported rate for women ranged from 20% in the African Region to 48% in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
| WHO region | Women not meeting recommendations, 2022 |
|---|---|
| Eastern Mediterranean | 48% |
| South-East Asia | 45% |
| Americas | 41% |
| European | 28% |
| Western Pacific | 26% |
| African | 20% |
These are regional figures for adult women, not rates for all adults. WHO separately describes the regional gap between women and men: it was 14 percentage points in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and 4 percentage points in the Western Pacific Region. The values show that both women’s regional prevalence and the size of the sex difference vary by region. They do not explain why the patterns differ. Source: WHO, Global levels of physical inactivity in adults: off track for 2030
The report’s age discussion is qualitative rather than a full table of exact rates. In 2022, inactivity among men generally rose gently with age, followed by a steep increase after age 60. This description supports an age pattern but does not supply exact prevalence figures for individual age bands. It should not be turned into specific age-group percentages. Source: WHO, Global levels of physical inactivity in adults: off track for 2030
Adult physical inactivity statistics by world region and income
WHO’s 2022 estimates for all adults were highest in the Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asia regions, both at 40%. The report lists lower rates of 28% in the Western Pacific Region, 25% in the European Region and 16% in the African Region. This regional comparison is distinct from the women-only figures above: the measure here covers all adults in each named region.
The report also gives estimates for two country groupings. “High-income Asia”—Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore—had 48% inactivity prevalence. Its South Asia grouping—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka—had 45%. These are group-level estimates as defined in the report; they should not be confused with the WHO regional rates or with World Bank income classifications. Source: WHO, Global levels of physical inactivity in adults: off track for 2030
For 2022, WHO reports 38% inactivity among adults in lower-middle-income countries, compared with 33% in high-income countries and 18% in low-income countries. The source describes these categories under the World Bank income classification. The comparison shows reported prevalence by income group, without establishing what accounts for the differences.
WHO also assessed progress toward the 2030 inactivity-reduction target. It identified 22 countries as on track with a higher level of certainty if trends persist; 12 of those countries were in the European Region. The assessment is conditional on the trend continuing and is not a guarantee that these countries will meet the target. Source: WHO, Global levels of physical inactivity in adults: off track for 2030
Adult physical inactivity statistics in the United States by race and place
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports a different measure from WHO: adults were classified as inactive if they reported no physical activity outside their regular job in the past month. In combined Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from 2017–2020, 25.3% of U.S. adults met this definition. The map included 52 jurisdictions. New Jersey was not reported because 2019 data were not collected.
For the same 2017–2020 outside-work measure, CDC reported these rates by race and ethnicity:
| U.S. adult group | Inactivity outside work |
|---|---|
| Non-Hispanic Asian | 20.1% |
| Non-Hispanic White | 23.0% |
| Non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native | 29.1% |
| Non-Hispanic Black | 30.0% |
| Hispanic or Latino/a | 32.1% |
Among the listed groups, the reported prevalence ranged from 20.1% for non-Hispanic Asian adults to 32.1% for Hispanic or Latino/a adults. These are self-reported outside-work inactivity estimates, not estimates of whether people met WHO’s weekly guideline. CDC’s older 2015–2018 map edition overlaps with this period, so the two editions should not be treated as a trend series. Source: CDC, Adult Physical Inactivity Outside of Work
Place-based findings also vary. Among the map jurisdictions, Colorado had the lowest reported prevalence, 17.7%, and Puerto Rico had the highest, 49.4%. For states grouped into the four U.S. regions, the South had the highest reported rate at 27.5%. CDC lists 25.2% for the Midwest and 24.7% for the Northeast. These jurisdiction and regional figures describe the CDC outside-work measure during 2017–2020; they do not indicate causes or changes over time. Source: CDC, Adult Physical Inactivity Outside of Work
Adult physical inactivity statistics for U.S. adults aged 18–29
A separate CDC analysis tracks U.S. adults aged 18–29 using BRFSS data. It uses the same basic outside-work question: respondents were classified as inactive if they said they had done no physical activity outside their regular job in the past month. The reported national series was 15.9% in 2012 and 17.1% in 2014. Later, it was 18.4% in 2023 and 16.8% in 2024. The 2024 national estimate is therefore reported alongside a lower value than the 2023 estimate, while the selected earlier observations provide context for the longer period. These four values do not, by themselves, describe every intervening year.
| Year | Adults aged 18–29 inactive outside work |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 15.9% |
| 2014 | 17.1% |
| 2023 | 18.4% |
| 2024 | 16.8% |
For 2024, the CDC analysis reports jurisdiction rates of 33.8% in Puerto Rico, 28.5% in Guam and 22.1% in Mississippi among adults aged 18–29. The lowest listed rate was 11.3% in the District of Columbia. These are jurisdiction-level estimates for young adults, not the overall adult rates described in the previous section. Tennessee lacked sufficient 2024 data for inclusion in the article’s jurisdiction estimates. National estimates draw on available BRFSS data from states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. Source: CDC, Prevalence of Frequent Mental Distress and Physical Inactivity Among Adults Aged 18–29 Years — United States, 2012–2024
Adult physical inactivity statistics in England by age, deprivation, and BMI
England’s Health Survey for England (HSE) uses a lower threshold than the WHO guideline. For 2024, the survey classified adults aged 16 and over as inactive if they reported less than 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity per week. Under that definition, 27% of adults were inactive: 26% of men and 28% of women. The HSE page explicitly distinguishes this classification from the guideline threshold of at least 150 minutes per week, so its prevalence figures should not be directly equated with WHO’s estimates.
The HSE’s age findings show different patterns for men and women. Among men, inactivity was 19% for those aged 16–34 and 45% for those aged 75 and over. Among women, the reported rate was 30% for ages 16–24 and 50% for ages 75 and over. For women aged 25–74, inactivity fluctuated between 22% and 26%. The age bands differ between the reported comparisons, so the figures are best read as the survey’s stated age-group findings rather than as a single matched series. Source: NHS England, Health Survey for England, 2024: Adults’ health-related behaviours
The survey also reports a difference by neighborhood deprivation. After age-standardisation across Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) quintiles, 41% of adults in the most deprived areas were inactive. The reported range across the 3 least deprived quintiles was 22%–24%. IMD describes the area where people live; this result is an area-level comparison and does not establish an individual explanation for inactivity.
By body mass index (BMI), 30% of adults living with obesity were inactive, compared with 23% of adults who were overweight and 20% of healthy-weight adults. These are the HSE’s 2024 figures for adults in England under its less-than-30-minutes-per-week inactivity definition. Taken together, the age, deprivation and BMI comparisons describe differences within the survey population, while retaining the survey’s specific threshold and categories. Source: NHS England, Health Survey for England, 2024: Adults’ health-related behaviours
Sources
- Global levels of physical inactivity in adults: off track for 2030 — WHO summary report
- Adult Physical Inactivity Outside of Work — CDC
- Prevalence of Frequent Mental Distress and Physical Inactivity Among Adults Aged 18–29 Years — United States, 2012–2024 — MMWR
- Health Survey for England, 2024: Adults’ health-related behaviours