New data from the World Health Organization (WHO), published on November 4 in The Lancet Global Health, shows that 86% of adolescents worldwide do not meet recommended physical activity levels.
About one in four, roughly 240 million 11- to 17-year-olds, report no active days in a typical week. Girls are less active than boys in every region: 28% of girls report no active days, compared with 22% of boys. That is far too many young people missing out on the benefits of being active.
The WHO findings point to changing lifestyles and environments and increased screen time as factors reducing opportunities for young people to move. When fewer young people build a lifelong connection to movement, the communities and pathways that sport depends on get weaker.
Amer Sports is one of 84 sporting goods companies, brands, retailers, and federations that have signed an open letter on youth inactivity, coordinated by the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI). Six of our brands have signed as well: Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson, Peak Performance, Atomic, and Armada. As a WFSGI member, we stand alongside industry peers such as adidas, ASICS, Decathlon, New Balance, and Nike.
The open letter calls youth inactivity a public health, education, social, and economic challenge, and an industry one too.
“Our biggest competitor is inactivity. Our greatest opportunity is participation,” –Emma Zwiebler, Chief Executive Officer of WFSGI
The signatories commit to
- Delivering initiatives that increase youth participation, close the gender gap, and reach the least active adolescents
- Sharing best practices and evidence-based solutions through collaboration across the sporting goods industry and beyond
- Working in partnership with global, regional, and national stakeholders who can transform the systems and environments that shape adolescent physical activity
- Engaging more with governments to advocate for stronger alignment between health, education, sport, trade, and urban planning policies
Our purpose is to elevate the world through sport, and we carry it out through the products that our brands create, and the athletes and communities we work with. No single organization can reverse the inactivity trend alone, but by working with industry peers, governments, schools, health organizations, and communities, we can help more young people experience the lifelong benefits of sport and movement.
Dive deeper:
Read the industry open letter on youth inactivity.
Read the full WHO report.