ONE IN THREE Irish adults do not exercise. Ever.
But it’s not all bad news for Irish fitness though, we also have the best performance in Europe for people exercising regularly.
A report by the European Commission has found that on average just eight per cent of people exercise regularly in European countries, that’s a seven per cent drop since 2009.
While 16 per cent of Irish people exercise regularly, which is at least five times a week.
We are closely followed by Hungary, Slovenia, Spain and Lithuania.
Feeling smug? Not so soon…
The report also found that there’s been a rise of eight per cent in the last four years in the number of Irish people not exercising at all.
We come in at 34 per cent. The most used excuse is that we don’t have time.
The countries which rated the highest in Europe for never exercising were Bulgaria at 78 per cent and Malta at 75 per cent .
Who is exercising?
The study found that men in the EU exercise or play sport more than women.
However it does note that “This disparity is particularly marked in the 15-24 age group, with men tending to exercise or play sport on a regular basis considerably more than young women (74 per cent vs 55 per cent)”.
A link between education and the frequency of exercise or sport was also noted in the report.
The majority (68 per cent) of people who left the education system by the age of 15 or earlier say they never exercise or play sport.
This number falls to 45 per cent for those who ended education at 16-19 and 27 per cent for those who finished education at the age of 20 or over.
Nearly 28,000 people took part in the survey carried out for the European Commission by the TNS Opinion and Social network over November and December last year.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say