Tag Archive for 'eurobarometro'

Sedentary people increase in South Europe

As well as highlighting which UE Member States’ citizens engage the most in sport and physical activity, the new Eurobarometer survey emphasises socio-demographic results and the context in which people exercise. It also reveals how people perceive the opportunities for sport and physical activity in their areas and how much time they spend on voluntary activity linked to sport. The survey shows large differences among Member States. It follows previous largely comparable surveys carried out in 2002 and 2009. The number of people saying they never exercise or play sport has increased by three percentage points since the 2009 survey (from 39% to 42%). A similar proportion exercise or play sport at least once a week (41%, an increase of one percentage point from the previous survey).

48% engage in other physical activity, for recreational or non-sport-related reasons, such as cycling from one place to another, dancing or gardening at least once a week, while 30% never do this kind of activity at all.

Overall, men in the EU exercise, play sport or engage in other physical activity more than women. This disparity is particularly marked in the 15-24 age group, with considerably more young men tending to exercise or play sport on a regular basis than young women (74% vs 55%). The amount of regular activity people engage decreases with age: 71% of women and 70% of men in the 55+ age group never or seldom exercise or play sport.

Over the course of a week, 54% of respondents did not engage in any vigorous activity (four percentage points lower than 2002) and 44% did not do any moderate physical activity (up three percentage points compared with 2002). 13% of EU citizens did not walk for at least 10 minutes on a given day within a week (four percentage points lower than 2002). On a usual day, about two-thirds (69%) of respondents spend between 2.5 and 8.5 hours sitting (an increase of five percentage points compared with 2002), while 11% sit for more than 8.5 hours and 17% for 2.5 hours or less.