The Laziest Countries In the World

Ever wondered what countries in the world do the least amount of fitness? A compilation of worldwide data shows some surprises.

What Country Moves The Least?

When it comes to physical inactivity, I often find Americans castigating their country, but they actually are not the laziest population out there. For the British, things are much worse and the Maltese apparently hardly move at all.

That is at least according to data published by medical journal Lancet, where researchers scoured far and wide for data on how many people in different countries do what is considered the least amount of physical activity to stay healthy: a weekly 5×30 minutes of moderate physical activity or 3×20 minutes of vigorous physical activity.

The Top Ten Laziest Countries

Here they are, the top ten countries that like to take things easy, least to most (well…) active:

 
Some of these countries are really, really hot and people there may simply lack air-conditioned facilities where they could get active. Who feels like doing “vigorous” exercise when it’s 113°F (45°C)? But it is a bit harder to come up with an excuse for the UK, isn’t it?  (Here I will be waiting for cheap puns about British weather: “too wet”.)

The Top Ten Most Active Countries

Now let us look at the countries who practically can’t stand still, sorted from most to least active:

 
If you can provide a reasoning why people in Bangladesh, Mozambique, Cambodia et al. move this much, shoot! From the top of my head, I can’t.

Where Is Your Country?

Here are the countries most of my readership comes from, sorted by most to least active once more:

 
Congratulations to the Greek, who are the most active country in Europe and worldwide tie with my visitors from India. The Netherlands don’t do much worse and my own Germany is somewhere in the middle. That the US is more physically active than the UK does come up as a bit of surprise, doesn’t it?

Picture courtesy of David Surtees. Raw data provided by The Guardian.