published Sep 5, 2018, 6:24:29 PM, by Hans Lee and Alyssa McDonald
(Bloomberg) —
One in four people don’t get enough exercise, according to a report from the World Health Organization. In the survey of 168 nations, Uganda came in first as the most energetic, with Kuwait in last place.

The U.S. ranked 143rd, the U.K. 123rd, Singapore dropped in at 126th, while Australia came in at 97th.

In Kuwait, American Samoa, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, more than half of the population doesn’t get enough exercise, according to the WHO. In Uganda, by contrast, just 5.5 percent are not sufficiently active.

Elsewhere around the world, India ranked 117th, Philippines 141st and Brazil 164th.

The WHO defines enough exercise as at least 75 minutes of vigorous activity or 150 minutes of moderately intense activity per week, or any combination of the two.

In most countries, women tend to be less active than men. People in poorer nations are more than twice as active as their counterparts in high-income nations. The report’s authors point to sedentary occupations and a higher dependence on automobiles for the slide in activity.

Global exercise levels did not improve significantly between 2001 and 2016, and the WHO is not on track to meet its 2025 target of reducing physical inactivity by 10 percent. “A significant increase in national action is urgently needed in most countries,” they said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Hans Lee in Sydney at hlee727@bloomberg.net ;Alyssa McDonald in Sydney at amcdonald61@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Johnson at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net
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