People in Portugal have one of the lowest levels of sport and physical activity in the EU.
A Eurobarometer survey found 64% of people in Portugal said they never exercised or played sport.
The lowest levels of participation were clustered in the southern EU, so Portugal is not alone.
In Bulgaria, 78% said they are not active, 75% in Malta and 60% in Italy.
Citizens in the northern part of the EU are the most physically active. The proportion that exercise or play sport at least once a week is 70% in Sweden, 68% in Denmark, 66% in Finland, 58% in the Netherlands and 54% in Luxembourg.
The survey found on average that 59% of EU citizens never or seldom exercise or play sport at least once a week, while only 41% do. It called the levels of inactivity across Europe “alarmingly high”.
The difference in activity between northern and southern Europe reflects in part the facilities available, although most exercise was found to take place in informal settings, such as a park, or travel between home and work or school.
Other physical activity, such as cycling, dancing or gardening, at least once a week is done by 48%. In Portugal, that figure is 40%.
Undertaking any vigorous physical activity was done by only 24% of Portuguese, one of the lowest rates in the country survey, while only 31% admitted to moderate activity.
Not surprisingly, exercise rates tend to decrease with age, with 70% of both men and women over 55 saying they never or seldom exercise or play sport.
The most common reason given for exercising was to improve health (62%) and the most common for not doing more regular sport was shortage of time (42%).
The researchers point to a link between education and frequency of sport. The majority of those who left education early (15 or less) are those who exercise the least. This means that managers and other white collar workers play sport more than other works and unemployed people seem the most likely not to play at all.
