MANILA, Philippines — About two in five Filipino adolescents reported getting less than an hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, falling behind their counterparts around the world.
The World Health Organization's latest survey foudn tha taround 40% of adolescents aged 11 to 17 in the Philippines reported having no "active day" in a week.
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An active day was defined as one with at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, such as brisk walking, cycling, playing sports or other activities that raise the heart rate.
The study, published in The Lancet Global Health, draws on hundreds of population-based surveys from 140 countries and territories, involving more than 3.2 million teens.
The Philippines was grouped with Namibia and Nepal, where around 40% of adolescents also reported no active days. By comparison, the global average was about 25%. This makes the Philippines' youth among the least active in the world.
Over the years, overall inactivity barely changed and even marginally declined in the Philippines, from 40.85% in 2010 to 40.32% in 2025.
Filipino girls are even less active than their male counterparts in the 2025 findings, with 42.7% reporting having no active day compared with 38% of boys.
The trend is similar globally. Only 11% of girls said they were active every day, compared with 17% of boys.
"For 15 years, the world has made almost no progress in getting young people moving, and girls are being left furthest behind," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
PHILIPPINES | WHO DATA
4 in 10 Filipino adolescents report zero active days
Percentage of adolescents reporting no physically active days in the previous week, 2021–2025