Malta Has Highest Share Of Young People In EU Who Never Exercise

Malta has recorded the highest share of young people in the European Union who report doing no physical activity outside work, according to new Eurostat data.

In 2025, 31% of people aged 16 to 29 in Malta said they did not take part in any physical activity outside work. This was the highest rate in the EU, followed by Portugal at 28.5% and Bulgaria at 28.4%.

By comparison, fewer than 3% of young people in Greece, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands reported never exercising.

Across the EU, the picture was different, with 73.1% of young people aged 16 to 29 exercising at least once a week. This compared with 61.6% of the overall population aged 16 and over.

Only 16.3% of young people across the EU said they never carried out physical activity outside work, meaning Malta’s figure was almost double the European average for the same age group.

Young people were also generally more active than the wider population, with 18.3% exercising four to six times a week compared with 12.8% of the total population.

Eurostat also found differences between young men and women, with 20.6% of young men exercising four to six times weekly compared with 16% of young women.

The data covers activities outside work, including exercise such as walking, running, going to the gym and playing sport.

For Malta, the figure means almost one in three young people reported no physical activity outside work, the highest share in the EU.

#MaltaDaily