A study by Ipsos and the World Economic Forum shows that people in 29 countries spend on average 6.1 hours per week on exercise or sports.
Rates are hardly uniform within the cohort, however. The least active people appear to be Brazilians, spending three hours per day, whereas the Dutch have come out on top, with 12.8 hours. Germans and Romanians follow, with 11.1 and 11 hours respectively. Other low-scoring countries include France (3.7), Chile (3.7), Italy (3.6) and Japan (3.3).
Indeed, about one-third of the inhabitants of the land of the rising sun do no weekly exercise. The same goes for about a third of Brazilians, a quarter of Poles and Italians, and 14 percent of the world’s population.
The top sports are fitness (20%), running (19%), cycling (13%), football (10%) and swimming (9%). Some 38 percent of the survey’s respondents do not practice team sports, with Americans and the British being particularly individualistic, to the tune of about 60 percent. Canadians (56%), Australians (55%) and Japanese (55%) follow.
Six in ten would like to perform more sports than they do, and of these about four in ten say they lack the time. The unmet desire is strongest in Peru (81%), Chile (79%) and Colombia (78%). The lack of time dominates in Saudi Arabia (51%), Peru (48%) and Russia (47%). Other respondents cited cost (18%) and hot or cold weather (17%). Cost is prohibitive mostly in Turkey (33%), Argentina (30%) and Russia (25%). About a fifth of respondents cited no particular reason for their idleness.
