(Non-) athletic Europe

The European Commission’s Directorate for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture recently released a survey on Europe’s sport habits. When asked, 46 percent of the 28,031 respondents said that they never exercise or do sports.

As this graphic shows, the willingness to do sports differs greatly from country to country. While it seems as though warmer countries like Greece, Italy or Portugal generally have a low interest in physical training, Nordic countries are probably the fittest. Only 13 percent of all Finns and 15 percent of the Swedes are serious couch potatoes.

The UK ranks ninth in the EU wide survey, right behind their Irish neighbors, where only 34 percent of all respondents stated they do not do sport at all.

In comparison to 2013, a general decrease in the interest in exercise can be observed in most parts of the European Union with Finland, Belgium, Cyprus and Malta as the only nations with a rising interest in fitness.