← Blog

Exercise statistics 2026: how many people work out and what it costs

By Stelvo Team · · 10 min read

Every figure here is traced to the organisation that produced it — the WHO and its Lancet analyses, the CDC, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Healthy People 2030 and peer-reviewed meta-analyses — and was checked against the source on 15 September 2026. Each statistic appears once, with publisher, year and link.

Key takeaways

  • 31% of adults worldwide — about 1.8 billion people — did not meet recommended physical activity levels in 2022, up about 5 percentage points since 2010 and projected to reach 35% by 2030 (WHO, 2024).
  • 81% of adolescents aged 11–17 are insufficiently active — 77.6% of boys and 84.7% of girls (Guthold et al., The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 2020).
  • Only 24.2% of US adults met both the aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines in 2020; 46.9% met the aerobic guideline alone (CDC/NCHS, 2022).
  • 25.3% of US adults report no physical activity outside work in the past month, from 17.7% in Colorado to 49.4% in Puerto Rico (CDC, BRFSS 2017–2020).
  • On an average day, 23.4% of Americans aged 15 and over exercise or play sport, for an average of 1.47 hours among those who do (BLS American Time Use Survey, 2025).
  • 32% of Americans meet the 150-minute weekly guideline; 68% do not (SFIA, 2026).
  • Physical inactivity accounts for 7.2% of all deaths and 7.6% of cardiovascular deaths worldwide (Katzmarzyk et al., 2022).
  • Inactivity will cause almost 500 million new cases of preventable disease between 2020 and 2030, costing US$27 billion a year (WHO, 2022).
  • Taking more steps lowers mortality risk up to 6,000–8,000 steps a day for people 60 and over and 8,000–10,000 for younger adults (Paluch et al., 2022).
  • 60–75 minutes a day of moderate activity eliminates the extra death risk of sitting more than eight hours (Ekelund et al., 2016).
  • People who exercise report 43.2% fewer days of poor mental health a month than matched non-exercisers (Chekroud et al., 2018).
  • Reaching 150 minutes a week of moderate activity is associated with a 26% lower risk of type 2 diabetes; double that, 36% (Smith et al., 2016).

How many people in the world don't exercise enough?

Nearly a third of adults. The global age-standardised prevalence of insufficient physical activity — less than 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week — was 31.3% in 2022, up from 23.4% in 2000 and 26.4% in 2010, in a pooled analysis of 507 surveys covering 5.7 million people in 197 countries and territories (Strain et al., The Lancet Global Health, 2024). Prevalence was rising in 103 of the 197 countries and was 5 percentage points higher among women (33.8%) than men (28.7%).

The WHO's summary of the same data: about 1.8 billion adults did not meet recommended levels in 2022, inactivity is projected to rise to 35% by 2030, the highest rates are in high-income Asia Pacific (48%) and South Asia (45%), and only 22 countries are on track to hit the global target of a 15% reduction in inactivity by 2030 (WHO, June 2024). If 2010–2022 trends continue, the world will miss that target with a posterior probability above 99% (Strain et al., 2024).

Region (adults, 2022) Insufficiently active Source
High-income Asia Pacific 48% WHO, 2024
South Asia 45% WHO, 2024
High-income Western countries 28% WHO, 2024
Oceania 14% WHO, 2024
World 31% (≈1.8 billion people) WHO, 2024

How active are teenagers?

Hardly at all, by the guideline. In 2016, 81.0% of school-going adolescents aged 11–17 were insufficiently active — 77.6% of boys and 84.7% of girls — across 298 surveys from 146 countries; boys improved slightly from 80.1% in 2001 while girls did not change from 85.1%, and the worst region was high-income Asia Pacific (89.0% of boys, 95.6% of girls) (Guthold et al., The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 2020). In the US, the share of high-school students meeting both the aerobic and the muscle-strengthening guideline fell from 20.0% in 2017 to 16.5% in 2023 (Healthy People 2030, PA-08).

How many Americans meet the physical activity guidelines?

About one in four meet both. In 2020, 46.9% of US adults met the aerobic guideline, 31.0% met the muscle-strengthening guideline, 24.2% met both and 46.3% met neither, per CDC/NCHS Data Brief 443; men (28.3%) were ahead of women (20.4%). For adults aged 25 and over the both-guidelines figure was 22.5% in 2022, rising from 12.2% among those with a high-school education or less to 33.6% among college graduates (MMWR QuickStats, 2024). Healthy People 2030's age-adjusted measure moved from 25.2% (2020) to 26.4% (2024) against a target of 29.7% (PA-05).

The guidelines themselves: 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity or an equivalent mix, plus muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days (CDC). The sports industry's own tracking puts 32% of Americans at the 150-minute mark and 68% below it, while the share who are totally inactive fell below 20% in 2025; 250 million Americans took part in at least one sport, fitness or leisure activity during the year (SFIA 2026 Topline Participation Report).

How many Americans are completely inactive?

One in four, outside of work. Combined 2017–2020 BRFSS data show 25.3% of US adults did no physical activity or exercise outside their regular job in the past month, ranging from 17.7% in Colorado to 49.4% in Puerto Rico; the South (27.5%) leads the Midwest (25.2%), Northeast (24.7%) and West (21.0%), and seven states — West Virginia, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas and Mississippi — plus Puerto Rico are at 30% or more (CDC, Adult Physical Inactivity Outside of Work). By race and ethnicity, inactivity is highest among Hispanic adults (32.1%) and non-Hispanic Black adults (30.0%) and lowest among non-Hispanic Asian adults (20.1%).

How much time do people actually spend exercising?

Twenty minutes a day on average, because most days most people do none. In 2025, 23.4% of the US population aged 15 and over participated in sports, exercise or recreation on an average day (25.7% of men, 21.1% of women); averaged across everyone that is 0.34 hours a day, but among those who took part it was 1.47 hours (Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey 2025, Table 1).

What does physical inactivity cost?

Millions of lives and tens of billions of dollars. Globally 7.2% of all-cause deaths and 7.6% of cardiovascular deaths are attributable to physical inactivity, with the share of specific diseases ranging from 1.6% for hypertension to 8.1% for dementia; the relative burden is more than twice as high in high-income as in low-income countries, but 69% of inactivity-linked deaths occur in middle-income countries (Katzmarzyk et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2022). The earlier landmark estimate put inactivity behind 9% of premature mortality — more than 5.3 million of the 57 million deaths in 2008 — and 6% of coronary heart disease, 7% of type 2 diabetes and 10% each of breast and colon cancer; eliminating it would add 0.68 years to world life expectancy (Lee et al., The Lancet, 2012).

In money: almost 500 million people will develop heart disease, obesity, diabetes or other non-communicable diseases attributable to inactivity between 2020 and 2030, costing US$27 billion a year in treatment and nearly US$300 billion by 2030; fewer than half of countries have a national physical activity policy and fewer than 40% of those are operational (WHO Global Status Report on Physical Activity, 2022).

How many steps a day do you need?

Fewer than 10,000. Across 15 cohorts and 47,471 adults, mortality risk fell progressively with more steps until about 6,000–8,000 a day for people aged 60 and over and 8,000–10,000 for those under 60; compared with the lowest quartile (median 3,553 steps), the second (5,801), third (7,842) and fourth quartiles (10,901) had 40%, 45% and 53% lower all-cause mortality (Paluch et al., The Lancet Public Health, 2022).

Does exercise cancel out sitting all day?

Mostly, if there is enough of it. In a harmonised analysis of more than one million people, sitting more than eight hours a day was not associated with higher mortality among the most active quartile (over 35.5 MET-hours a week — roughly 60–75 minutes of moderate activity a day), whereas mortality was 12–59% higher in the two least active quartiles; high activity attenuated but did not remove the risk of watching television for three or more hours a day (Ekelund et al., The Lancet, 2016).

What does exercise do for mental health and disease risk?

A lot, for a modest dose. Among 1,237,194 US adults, people who exercised reported 1.49 fewer days of poor mental health in the past month — 43.2% fewer — than matched non-exercisers, with the largest associations for team sports (22.3% lower burden), cycling (21.6%) and aerobic or gym activities (20.1%), and the sweet spot at about 45 minutes, three to five times a week (Chekroud et al., The Lancet Psychiatry, 2018). In 218 randomised trials with 14,170 participants, walking or jogging (effect −0.62), yoga (−0.55) and strength training (−0.49) all reduced depression compared with active controls, with larger effects at higher intensity (Noetel et al., BMJ, 2024).

For type 2 diabetes, 150 minutes a week of moderate activity is associated with a 26% lower risk, twice that with 36% lower, and very high volumes with 53% lower, across 28 prospective cohorts (Smith et al., Diabetologia, 2016). Muscle-strengthening activity adds its own 10–17% lower risk of death, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes (Momma et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2022).

Do gym members exercise more than everyone else?

Yes: 49.4% of US fitness facility members meet or exceed the federal aerobic guideline versus 24.5% of non-users, and members are seven times less likely to report no physical activity at all (4.7% vs 33.1%) (Health & Fitness Association, 2026). Membership figures are on our gym membership statistics page and lifting rates on the strength training statistics page.

How to cite this page

Stelvo, "Exercise statistics 2026: how many people work out and what it costs", stelvo.app, updated September 2026 — https://stelvo.app/blog/exercise-statistics. Credit individual figures to the original study or agency named beside them.

Sources

Method: figures were traced to the original study or agency and verified against the source on 15 September 2026. Survey-based prevalence uses each source's own definition of "insufficiently active"; cohort associations are not proof of cause. This page is refreshed when WHO, CDC or BLS publish new editions.

← All posts